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p. M. KLING. 



Why a Boy Should 
Learn a Trade 



THE WORKMAN AS A 
CITIZEN Ne REWARD 
for SKILL and ENERGY 



"a man with a trade makes 

a better citizen, soldier, 

sailor or merchant ' ' 



By Peter M. Kling 

PITTSBURGH, PA. 



Copyright 1906 by Peter M. Kling- 
All Rights Reserved 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 

AUG 24 1906 

/7CoDyii^ni Entry 



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COPY B. 



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Press of 

PERCY F. SMITH 

956-958 Liberty Avenue 

Pittsburgh, Pa. 

1906 



Tms Book 

IS 

As I Say In My Foreword 

TO 

"Put the Right Man 

In the Right Place" 



Contents 



Page 
CHAP. 1— Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade.. 13 

CHAP. 2— Economy By Skill 31 

CHAP. 3— How to Learn a Trade 41 

CHAP. 4— What Trade to Learn 49 

CHAP. 5— Where to Learn a Trade 57 

CHAP. 6 — A Word to the Apprentice 69 

CHAP. 7— What He Can Do 79 

CHAP. 8— Labor Not So Hard as it Used to Be. 87 
CHAP. 9— When a Man is a Good Mechanic... 97 

CHAP. 10— Work and Play 107 

CHAP. 11— Importance of Education 119 

CHAP. 12 — The Foreman and Superintendent. .127 

CHAP. 13— How Character Counts 135 

CHAP. 1^1 — Future Possibilities 143 

CHAP. 15— Social Duties 153 

CHAP. 16— The Workman as a Citizen 161 

CHAP. 17— Reward For Skill and Energy 169 

CHAP. 18— The Summing Up 177 



STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! 



IT is important to be a Mechanic 
I in this great mechanical age. 

1 It is advantageous to be a first 

class Mechanic ; for he receives the 
highest ^vages. 

Do not neglect to learn Avhile you 
are young. 

Do not miss an opportunity. Ambi- 
tion in youth means comfort in age. 

Five years spent in learning a trade 
is like sowing a crop ; it may give you 
forty years of harvest. 



Foreword. 



Foreword 

THIS book is not written to serve as advice 
for college graduates or professional men, 
but for the purpose of giving the benefit of 
experience to the young man who is less for- 
tunate. It is intended more as a guide book 
for those who have had neither time nor means 
to get a college training. I know that there 
are many changes along the line in which I 
am advising the young man to educate him- 
self, by which he can not only make a com- 
fortable living, but perhaps advance himself 
to a position of importance. Our country has 
many superior men who never had the oppor- 
tunity to get what is known as the higher 
education. 

While college training is becoming more 
important every day, a m^echanical education 



8 Foreword. 

is just as character-forming, and the field is 
certainly much wider. I believe that the pro- 
fessions are more overcrowded than the trades 
with skilled employees. 

These words are written especially to as- 
sist the beginner. I believe I can advise him 
how, why and where to start, because early 
knowledge means a lot. We have too many 
young men who have neglected opportunities 
in their younger days. And I have heard 
hundreds of men say, "If I had only known 
then what I know now." 

It is my endeavor to outline for the young 
man to "Know now" how to begin, how to pro- 
ceed and how to strive for success. I feel 
that this purpose of urging a boy to learn a 
trade and get a mechanical training has been 
very much neglected, possibly because we are 
in reality comparatively a young country in 
the line of manufacture. 

So far as time goes we are only beginners 
in the industries, and as the entire world is 
rapidly being educated to the necessities of 




FARMERS BANK B U I LD 1 N G, PITTS B U R GH , PA. 



Foreword 9 

mechanical improvements, and taking into 
consideration the great strides forward made 
in the past few years, there is a splendid future. 
I believe that with the people properly edu- 
cated, with manufacturing and commerce de- 
veloping so rapidly, the skilled mechanic is 
coming into his own. 

The increase in manufacturing will not 
only broaden our own markets in this line 
but it will raise the home demand for the 
farmer's products. It has come to be an 
axiom that the more we manufacture the more 
we consume. The more raw material we turn 
into money, the wealthier our citizens and our 
country will become ; the higher we can raise 
our wages and the greater quantity of manu- 
factured articles we can produce, the better 
we all can live and the more comfort we can 
enjoy. 

I have also taken the liberty to say some 
few words to our workmen as to their domes- 
tic and social affairs, outside of the pointers 
I have tried to impress on them with regard to 



10 Foreword 

their shop work. I believe these things are of 
great importance, not only to the men them- 
selves and their families, but to the country. 
My aim has been to guide workmen and me- 
chanics so that they might help themselves 
to be healthier, wealthier and happier citizens. 

During a long life-time in the workshop I 
have had the very best of opportunities to 
observe their ways, not only in the factory, 
but at their homes. I know where they work, 
how they work and where and how they live. 
I have worked with them and been among them 
for over thirty-five years. 

I hope that my work will serve a good 
purpose, in not only getting boys to learn a 
trade, but in calling the attention of our manu- 
facturers and liberal donors to the importance 
and necessity of establishing facilities to give 
willing boys an opportunity to learn a trade. 

I have been brief, as I do not believe in 
using two pieces of material where one will 
answer. This book is written to put the right 
man in the right place. 



Chapter 
I. 



Why a Boy Should 
L,earn a "Trade 



^ 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 13 



CHAPTER I. 

WHY A BOY SHOULD LEARN A TRADE. 

WHEN Andrew Carnegie set aside his 
millions for the foundation of the tech- 
nical schools which bear his name, the Captains 
of Industry all over the world applauded the 
motive which led to the institution of this grand 
project. Coming, as it did, from one who rose 
from almost nothing to one of colossal stature 
in the industrial sphere, it was fitting that the 
whole world should appreciate the deficiency 
in the curriculum used by most educational 
institutions, which might offer just the sort of 
advantages essential to the rounding out of the 
gray matter in the brains of mechanics, upon 
whose abiHty depends a continuance of the 
commercial supremacy of our country. 

By a bold stroke of the pen, Mr. Carnegie 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

not only set himself on record as a friend of 
the -working-men, but, by giving his millions 
into the hands of wise trustees, skilled in the 
arts of manufacturing, started a campaign 
which will ultimately lead to the creation of 
a new force that has been lacking in the mills 
and factories of the earth, and by this same 
stroke of generosity thousands of objectors 
have received the answer to the query, ''AVhy 
a Boy Should Learn a Trade?"' 

Here was a man who for years devoted 
his entire time and energy to building the most 
perfectly organized industrial establishments 
in the world, and Ave haA'e the "Ironmaster's" 
own statement, that his success is due entirely 
to the co-operation of his thirty junior part- 
ners, and their wisdom in searching out the 
best talent in the youth of the land. This or- 
ganization ahvays has been essentially "a 
young man's interest" : and w^hile there have 
been some gray hairs and streaked beards 
within the corporation, it can generally be as- 
serted that lovaltv in service has done more 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 15 

to retain such positions than for actual results 
developed from superannuated help. 

One of the greatest obstacles that ever 
confronted Mr. Carnegie was the lack of suffi- 
cient "corporals," "sergeants," and "non-coms," 
to carry forth the ideas of that celebrated pha- 
lanx of young partners who brought the steel 
business to the highest point of development. 
If you were to ask any Captain of Industry 
to-day wherein his organization was deficient, 
the invariable answer would be "lack of skilled 
workmen, to act as superintendents, foremen, 
and assistants to the men who pilot the me- 
chanics in the mills." 

But while they have all realized this, it 
remained for the brainy Scot to offer advan- 
tages to the workmen of the world to secure 
for themselves just that information which 
would enable them to enormously increase 
their income; to greatly aid the efficiency of 
the mechanics in the mills and shops; to en- 
able the corporate interests to pay increased 
dividends through economy of manufacture, 



16 /f^^O' ^ ^^y 'Should Leani a Trade 

and to lift themselves beyond the usual 
sphere of the plebeian workman to a higher 
plane, and set a new standard of environment 
for themselves and families. 

Time was when a father would be ostra- 
cized, if he handicapped his son by sending" 
him out into the world without the equipment 
of knowledge, coming from a close application 
to an apprenticeship at one or more of the 
various trades. The ''old stagers" can all look 
back upon the time Avhen they left the little 
school house to enter the ''kindergarten" of an 
industrial establishment. That was before the 
days of gigantic corporations, when the trades 
were few, the business small, and the appli- 
cations for opportunities to study the mysteri- 
ous rudiments of the early specialties were 
many. 

It was a period which laid the foundation 
for the commercial success of this great coun- 
try, and there is no doubt that the successful 
business man of to-day, from the banker down, 
owes a great deal to the prevalent custom of 




AMERICAN BRIDGE COMPANY 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 17 

bygone times, which necessitated the youth 
being apprenticed to some trade. There are 
many reasons why this should have been so, 
and the arguments are not a whit less effective 
to-day. 

The increased demand for manufactured 
goods became evident years and years ago, not 
only in one direction, but to every corner of 
the country, even before the full develop- 
ment of our Eastern cities. It started with 
the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and 
as the march of progress conquered the wilds 
of the country that demand increased, until, 
at this very time, the whole country is crying 
out for commodities which must be manu- 
factured. 

In the olden days, it might have been a 
plow, or it might have been a sword ; it might 
have been a nail, or it might have been a sack 
to hold the flour for the bread; but just the 
same, the demand was in evidence, and with 
the obliteration of forests and mountains, 
streams and distance, that same demand has 



18 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

swelled to proportions which almost defy the 
ingenuity of man. In the infancy of the 
manufacturing business the scope of the capi- 
talist in this line was more or less restricted. 
To-day there is absolutely no limit to the 
variety of goods classed as "manufactured" 
articles, and although the products of the farm 
always have been, and always will be, import- 
ant to the commerce and wealth of a country, 
this vast interest has long since been passed 
by that known as "manufacturing." 

It applies not only to machinery and 
transportation, agriculture, mining and other 
visible projects, but it is also extremely notice- 
able in the household. We have to-day im- 
proved gas ranges, modern plumbing, and 
thousands of improvements that were entirely 
unknown thirty years ago. Many small ar- 
ticles are within the pantry of the dwelling, 
and all add to the benefit and comfort of hu- 
manity, increasing the grand total of manufac- 
tures. 

While we have developed an almost un- 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 19 

heard of volume of business within our own 
country, the merchants and manufacturers have 
succeeded in corralling the majority of the 
foreign markets. The gigantic increase in the 
size of cargo, of the vessels plying the oceans 
with their thousands of tons of freight, is a 
testament to the industry of this country. 
When the invoices show the freight to be 
"manufactured goods," it is another potent 
argument "Why a boy should learn a trade." 

We cannot manufacture successfully with- 
out skilled labor. Neither can our competitors. 
And the extraordinary scope of the manufac- 
turing industry in this country has robbed 
the schools of the bright youths to continue 
the work which was started years ago. True, 
the old system of apprenticeship is not in evi- 
dence as formerly, nor are methods of instruc- 
tion in the shop as crude as when our fathers 
obligated us to serve out the apprenticeship 
that had so many trials, defeats and victories 
in store for us. 

When we started out to master our trade, 



20 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

our first conception was that we were wage- 
earners. We were too young to realize that 
such a course of instruction was to be a last- 
ing benefit to the individual. Nor had we the 
slightest thought that close application, which 
brought personal success, would contribute to 
the perfection of the industries of the country. 
The benefit one receives individually by being 
a tradesman, rather than an unskilled work- 
man, cannot be measured in dollars and cents. 
Of course, a man who is backed with the 
asset of a trade will earn double the amount 
of money received by one not so equipped, and 
in many instances the mastery of a trade will 
bring three, four or five times the amount of 
recompense paid the unskilled laborer. If you 
will just stop for a minute and think what 
this means during the entire lifetime of a per- 
son, with or without a trade, it will be of con- 
siderable importance to each individual who 
counts in making up the population of the 
world. To double the income during an entire 
lifetime means a great deal more comfort ; it 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 21 

means a great deal more pleasure ; it inspires 
a better method of living, to enjoy the comforts 
of life, to have better clothing, to have better 
associates, to have a better home for onesself 
and family, and to be a great deal better citi- 
zen; simply and absolutely because of a few 
years spent during the spring of life in learn- 
ing a trade. 

You cannot impress this too strongly on 
your mind. Take it to heart, give it careful 
consideration, and you can readily conclude 
that it is the tradesman who has builded this 
country so high as to make it the envy of the 
world. And you who have children should 
carefully ponder over their welfare, before 
advising the steps which will point out the 
future not only of the individual, but of the 
whole country. Make up your mind that your 
boy will master some trade. Pause carefully 
before selecting in what direction his talents 
are pointed; but, by all means, let him learn a 
trade while he is young and has the oppor- 
tunity. 



22 Why a Boy Should Learn a Ti'ade 

When you see a man, and you can say he 
has mastered a trade, that man has an asset 
which will bring him untold advantages over 
the unskilled laborer. He has the brain de- 
velopment which will enable him to secure 
employment easily, and if he is a really skilled 
mechanic, a good all-around tradesman, no 
matter how dull the times, people will be look- 
ing for him. 

The man with the trade "skids" quietly 
along, and while he may find it a little difficult 
at times to have all the comforts enjoyed in 
an average season, his very training of mind 
and hand is such as to enable him to adapt 
himself to circumstances, until the return of a 
prosperous season. He will have studied, 
saved and built up a name for himself that will 
enable him, through his usefulness in the com- 
munity, to secure credit that could not pos- 
sibly come to a common laborer. 

You who have lived in a large city, or 
adjacent to one, can easily distinguish the man 
who is a mechanic. Pass down any of the 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 23 

thoroughfares, which comprise the business 
marts of the city, and make a study of the men 
whom you see there. Glance at the passengers 
who make use of public conveyances, look at 
the shoppers, and invariably you will be able 
to distinguish a mechanic from a laborer. 

There is something in his countenance 
which tells you at once, "Here is a machinist, 
or a carpenter," as the case may be. The 
very lines which form the contour of the face 
depict exactly what is back of the external 
flesh. You can see a certain resoluteness and 
precision of action, that is wanting in a man 
who has not received the careful schooling 
which comes while serving an apprenticeship. 
If you see a gang of idlers on a street corner, 
or obliterating the light from a saloon, you 
will find very few persons who have actually 
mastered their trade, spending their time with 
associates who are so far beneath them men- 
tally as to be able to earn less than half the 
income which accrues to a mechanic. 

There is a rounding out in a man's char- 



24 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

acter after he has mastered machinery and 
become practical, which is always in evidence. 
His clothes are cleaner, his habits are perfect, 
his language is neither harsh nor rude ; in fact, 
all the attributes of a gentleman are assimi- 
lated by the mechanic, as he passes through 
the various stages of the apprenticeship with 
his craft. It may be that he is a carpenter, or 
affiliated with one of the many sub-divisions 
of the vocation ; or he may be a machinist, or 
connected with some branch of that trade. 

It might be that he is a blacksmith ; or his 
hands and mind might be better adapted to 
the delicate work required in a watch factory. 
He might support his family as a plumber. 
You might find him tacking tin down on a 
roof, building stairways or carving various 
kinds of wood. No matter what trade he se- 
lects, you cannot fail to notice that his whole 
life is far and above that of his companion, who 
never received the technical education so es- 
sential to the mastery of a trade. His very 
home life is on a different plane entirely from 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 25 

the man whose sensibiHties have not been 
broadened and elevated to the state of per- 
fection as becomes one who associates with 
those mentally stronger than himself. 

Just so long as the mechanic pursues his 
studies, thinking all the while to keep his mind 
keyed up to the latest developments, not only 
of his own trade but those closely akin to his 
selected business, that soon he will rise even 
higher than the plane of the ordinary me- 
chanic. As sure as there are various social 
distinctions in foreign countries, so you will 
find it with the mechanics, not only in this 
country but all over the world. 

They are a clannish lot of citizens, and 
with a natural pride in the possession of 
worldly goods, their ambition receives an im- 
petus which carries them along from the rank 
and file. They rise to assistant foremanship, 
foremanship, superintendency, general mana- 
gership, and even to the coveted position of 
chief executive; looked up to by a courageous 
board of directors as the President, the sole 



26 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

inspiring head of a company, or corporation, 
whose capital investment may reach from 
thousands to millions. This is what is in 
store for the youth who will train body and 
mind to work, with all the aids which develop 
the rudiments of an ordinary trade. Studying 
hard the while, he becomes a specialist, whose 
reputation may be either local or world wide; 
or who may assemble the various parts of the 
sub-divisions of a trade, until he becomes a 
master mind sought after by the capitalist 
from one end of the world to the other. 

Thomas A. Edison learned a trade and 
worked until he became the most proficient 
telegraph operator that ever tramped into an 
office to ''hold down" a wire. He didn't stop 
at being a good telegrapher, but plugged along 
at his studies, until at this time the whole 
world owes him a debt of gratitude, that not 
only has brought him great honor but vast 
riches. You can never tell what the study of a 
trade will lead to. Certainly, it creates a de- 



Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 27 

sire for more knowledge, and the harder the 
battle the easier the next conquest. 

It is a singular thing that in addition to 
the advance made by Mr. Edison, Andrew 
Carnegie should have started out by mastering 
the mystery of the Morse code. It led to 
broader and more productive fields, until when 
he, at last, decided to die a poor man, he found 
himself the premier steel master of the world. 
These are two totally different endings to the 
same original trade, and there can be no doubt 
but that both of these men would never have 
reached their present stage of development, had 
it not been that they thought it necessary to 
learn a trade. When the advice is given that 
every young man should learn a trade, it is 
with the knowledge that it is almost as essen- 
tial, as a foundation for a man's start, as a 
corner-stone to a structure. It is important 
that the boy become a producer and a valu- 
able producer at an early age. 



Economy By Skill 31 



CHAPTER II. 



ECONOMY BY SKILL. 



THE word "Economy" is the essence of any 
discussion which might originate upon the 
topic for or against a boy learning a trade. It 
has been the battle for supremacy between 
commercial men of the world, which has de- 
veloped and brought to an apex the business 
of the artisan from one of feeble effort, in 
times gone by, to one of grand results at this 
time. Economy in manufacture is becoming 
more of a necessity every day. It is not only 
local and domestic competition that forces the 
practice of economy, but, when the merchant 
prince reaches out to conquer foreign marts, 
he does so with the idea, not only of extend- 
ing his business, but of rounding out his or- 
ganization, so that it is possible to get the 



32 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

greatest amount of work of the finished type 
from his investment in material and brains. 

When assaults are made on foreign mar- 
kets, it is because the manufacturer realizes 
that, in order to meet competition in our own 
country, it becomes necessary to manufacture 
upon a more gigantic scale the merchandise 
in which he is interested. For this reason, 
the foreign markets are sought to care for 
the supplies which are in excess of the de- 
mands in this country. Even though, in 
many cases, the export business is handled 
at a bare cost, it is essential in order to meet 
the competition within our own country; and, 
when contending interests strive to accom- 
plish a purpose simultaneously, just so soon 
is the public a gainer. So it is with the me- 
chanic. 

When contending interests look for the 
profits from the brain of the skilled workman, 
the old law of supply and demand regulates, 
not only the recompense of the mechanic, but 
marks the full development of his ingenuity 




-M 



Economy By Skill 33 

in a new line. To the young man, who is re- 
sourceful and rises above the ordinary hum- 
drum of a shop, come the honors of conquest, 
great riches and the profit-sharing participa- 
tion through the generosity of the American 
manufacturer. 

This will always be a factor in determin- 
ing the demand for experienced mechanics. 
That one word "Economy" is the keynote to 
the whole situation. 

We Americans are coming more and more 
in direct competition with foreign manufac- 
turers every day, and those Captains of Indus- 
try and their trusted servants, who plan and 
scheme the ways and means of making money, 
and increasing the efficiency of their respect- 
ive organizations, have long since realized 
that the lesson of economy has been brought 
home to the capitalists of the old world. This 
is especially true in the way our cousins across 
the water handle material. 

Abroad, labor always has been cheaper 
than in America. That is one factor which 



34 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

the mechanic of to-day must offset through 
ingenuity and sound business practice, which 
must always extend beyond the accounting 
room to the smallest corner of the shop. It 
took such men as Westinghouse, Pullman, 
Singer, Cramp, Disston and thousands of other 
manufacturers to develop the necessity for 
economy. It is a part of their organization 
to instruct not only the apprentice in the shop, 
but the mechanic, in the value of scheming to 
pare off material here and there and to save 
a minute wherever possible. 

How careful they are of minutes may be 
gathered from an actual experience in the life 
of a time-keeper, who was employed some few 
years ago at the Pencoyd Iron Works, along 
the banks of the Schuylkill River, just outside 
of the city limits of Philadelphia. It was the 
custom for the men to cease work at noon and 
take a half hour for dinner. When this recrea- 
tion period had passed it was the duty of the 
time-keeper to blow the shop whistle, which 
sent the men back to their labors for the other 



Economy By Skill 35 

half of the day. But while engaged in clerical 
duties one day, this particular time-keeper 
allowed the clock to travel along until the 
hands pointed at 12:32. He jumped to the 
lever, pulled the whistle and the men went 
back to work. Within five minutes the chief 
auditor of the company, Mr. C. C. Price, came 
bouncing into the time-office and calling the 
negligent time-keeper by name said : ''Freddie, 
4,300 men at 2 minutes each makes a big loss to 
this company. We will not take it off your 
salary to-day, but don't you ever be late blow- 
ing that whistle again." 

You can readily see for yourself that the 
two minutes delay in sending the men back 
to work cost this corporation a considerable 
amount of money. The vigilance of corpora- 
tion officials who are successful is such, that 
they immediately take notice of a loss, no mat- 
ter how small. While apparently a couple 
of minutes delay was an insignificant thing, 
when extended to cover the case of thousands 
of men, it would show a tendency to cut into 



36 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

the economy of an institution, and allow their 
competitors just another little fraction of an 
advantage over them. 

When great men who have become suc- 
cessful pay so much attention to small details, 
in order that they may attain the highest 
point of economy, it is a potent argument why 
a boy should learn a trade, in order that he, 
as soon as possible, may reach such a condition 
that he can become a strong factor, not only 
in the support of himself, his family and com- 
munity, but his country. Long ago this was 
recognized as a truism, and the successful men 
of to-day find it advantageous to set the youth 
at work in the shop; to begin the educational 
grind of the apprentice immediately after the 
school days. 

To be a real economist from a mechanical 
standpoint, it takes a man that can design and 
build a machine that will do in one operation 
what the old machine is now doing in two 
operations ; and again, a man that can design 
and build an engine that will furnish the 



Economy By Skill 37 

same horse-power as the old engine with half 
the steam; or a man that can design and build 
a boiler that will furnish twice the steam the 
old boiler furnishes, using the same quantity 
of fuel. In other words, a mechanic that can 
design and build a better article than the old 
one, at the same time requiring less material 
and less labor to produce such article. 

These accomplishments are real economy 
and require skilled mechanics. Such men are 
badly needed and can demand big pay. 

If one carpenter can make a chair with 
less wood and less waste than another and still 
produce as good an article of furniture, he is 
proving there is economy by skill. 



How to Learn a Trade 41 



CHAPTER III. 

HOW TO LEARN A TRADE. 

IF you were to go into a large industrial es- 
tablishment, and gaze at the apprentices 
receiving instruction from, older and wiser 
heads, you could not fail to realize that they are 
between the ages of 15 and 20 years. This is the 
time in period of youth which can most easily 
be spared and during which the brain and body 
is best adapted to assimilate instructive ideas. 
At this age the boy is still under the care of 
parents or guardian with seldom anyone de- 
pending upon him for support. Unless he has 
a widowed mother, or some equally unfortu- 
nate handicap, there should be nothing to dis- 
tract him from his studies. The mastery of a 
trade has many peculiarities, and unique con- 
ditions that are hard to express and difficult 



42 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

to relate because of the diversity of circum- 
stances, periods and combinations. 

All present themselves differently to indi- 
viduals, and it is absolutely impossible to lay 
out a fixed line for any one business, which 
will be sure to develop final results of exactly 
the same character with each individual. 

Learning a trade is a good deal like con- 
quering a language. There is no better simile 
that can be used. We have all heard people 
converse in a tongue of which they are not 
master. Some persons will grasp a language 
very easily and some boys and men will get 
the foundation of a trade rapidly. Others will 
work hard with a lesser degree of success. 
Every experienced shop superintendent has 
seen men fifty years of age, who have worked 
at one trade all the time they were, wage-earn- 
ers, and when they had reached or passed the 
half century mark, they were still poor me- 
chanics. People have spent years and years 
trying to master a foreign language, and still 
were unable to express themselves intelli- 



How to Learn a Trade 43 

gently. There are different ways of learning 
a language, and there are different ways of 
picking up a trade. 

We can learn a language so that we speak 
it fairly well, but when it comes to reading or 
writing in a strange tongue, we make a miser- 
able failure of it. Some will be able to master 
the pronunciation and the grammar, and others 
will get both so confused that our sympathy 
goes out to them in their struggles. It is abso- 
lutely the same thing with a trade. A youth 
may master one so that he will get the pro- 
nunciation, grammar and spelling perfect in 
every detail. He may have no trouble what- 
ever in disposing of the most intricate prob- 
lems which come up. He may be able in the 
absence of a preceptor to reason out, in a 
short time, just why things should be done a 
certain way. If a problem which is entirely 
new to him and his employers should arise, 
his reasoning may be such as to effectively 
dispose of it in the shortest manner possible, 
correctly and to the satisfaction not only of 



44 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

himself, but the organization. The difference 
between the two Hes in the foundation. 

It is always the foundation and natural 
ability a man starts with which determines 
easy success, a hard victory, or a losing battle. 
The necessity of a good school education be- 
fore beginning an apprenticeship is very essen- 
tial. No matter how staunch the superstruc- 
ture may be, if piled on quicksand it will 
crumble away. With the proper educational 
foundation, it is far easier for the right mian 
to secure the right place as a beginning. Mil- 
lions and millions have been spent in this coun- 
try and others for educational purposes. It has 
been one of the greatest problems of the age 
to arrange a system of instruction in the vari- 
ous schools and colleges of this country, which 
v/ill fit a man for his combat with the world. 
A youth who has passed through the country 
school is not so well adapted to begin life as 
one who has received the further instruction 
of a higher manual training institution. Nor 
are the students who are graduated from the 



How to Learn a Trade 45 

last mentioned as well prepared with a founda- 
tion to begin the study of a trade, as those who 
have gone still further and gained the theory 
in a technical college. The more solidly the 
foundation is builded, the more weight it will 
carry. The more a man is taught to think for 
himself, the more valuable asset will he become 
when he has finished the apprenticeship of the 
shop. He will be a workman worth his salt. 



What Trade to Learn 49 



CHAPTER IV. 



WHAT TRADE TO LEARN. 




F course, natural talent is a sign board 
that cannot be ignored and should be 
watched closely. Some boys can paint animals, 
imitate pictures, or reproduce caricatures prac- 
tically without any teaching whatever, while 
their next door neighbor might find it abso- 
lutely impossible to duplicate these feats, no 
matter how hard the effort. This is natural tal- 
ent. You will find another boy experimenting 
with his mother's sewing machine or clock. He 
can take it apart and put it together with com- 
parative ease, without instructions from any 
one. This is natural talent in another direc- 
tion. Further up the street you will find a 
third boy who can whittle out a ship, rig it 
with sail, and when he reaches a convenient 



50 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

pond navigate it. His chum finds it easy to 
put in, or take out, an electric bell and his 
father always has him care for the batteries 
and attend to the small details after purchas- 
ing the supplies. This boy is gifted in another 
direction. So we find mentally and physically 
we are of different inclinations when dabbling 
with mechanics. 

You have heard of the boy whose father 
left him the task of whitewashing a large 
board fence. When the parent returned in the 
evening he found the partition immaculate and 
the boy without a sign of labor. Explanations 
disclosed that the son had not only escaped 
doing any work himself, but had exchanged 
permission for his chums to wield the white- 
wash brush for a due and sufficient considera- 
tion, which, when totalled made three bags of 
marbles, a dozen toys, and a half peck of fruit. 
This is talent in another direction and it would 
be a shame to divert that talent outside of 
strictly mercantile lines. 

You have heard people assert the glories 



What Trade to Learn 51 

and advantages of health and station accru- 
ing from Hfe on the farm, but talent is in evi- 
dence in the country districts as well as in the 
city. The farmer's boy who would rather 
carry a hatchet or use a saw, willing, able and 
anxious to do mechanical work should by all 
means be given the opportunity to become a 
tradesman. Leave the farm work to someone 
else, who would rather break up the soil and 
be a companion for the stock. 

Attention should always be paid to abil- 
ity as reflected in work or play. Nearly every 
boy will ascertain that he has a fondness for a 
certain kind of work, or a particular trade, 
much more than for others. He has a wish 
and his desire should be gratified by allowing 
him to choose a vocation in line with it. 

There are many trades and this is liable 
to bewilder a young man. If, for instance, you 
were looking to the metal trade, it might puz- 
zle you to choose some division from a watch- 
maker to a locomotive blacksmith. But at 
the same time, if the young man desires to 



52 WJiy a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

become a metal worker, he should make up his 
mind with reasonable positiveness in what 
direction his preference lies. He should know 
absolutely whether he wants to be a machinist 
in the locomotive Avorks, electrical works, or 
whether he is better adapted to develop him- 
self as a general machine tool maker. If he 
desires to work with woods, he should make 
up his mind with some reasonable certainty 
what specific department of this trade he pre- 
fers to follow in order to become a journey- 
man. 

Choose your trade in the way you think. 
The machinist operating a large lathe, who 
handles his m.etal with a crane, may not work 
half as hard as the machinist who is handling 
the small lathe, and rapidly turning out many 
articles. If heavy machinery is pleasing to the 
youth, and he is fond of it, let him choose his 
trade in that direction. On the other hand, if 
he prefers small instruments and would rather 
handle delicate machinery, let him educate his 
mind in that direction, and he will make no 



What Trade to Learn 53 

mistake. The field is broad between the man- 
ufacture of pocket knives, and the gigantic 
shears that cut iron and steel of any dimension ; 
between the watch spring, and the locomotive. 
The one thing for the beginner is to start 
right. Begin where you are best adapted, and 
always start work in something over which 
you can become enthusiastic. With this it is 
positive that you will have some ability to 
work in the right direction. 

If you can whittle a dog's head out of a 
block of wood with a pocket knife, and you 
would rather sit down and do that work than 
anything else, by all means hurry up and be a 
wood worker. If you v/ould rather carve out 
fanciful figures and find it is less strain on you 
mentally and physically than sawing off heavy 
joist ends, pay no attention to the heavy wood. 
You will, of course, realize that it is neces- 
sary to make a sacrifice in order to accomplish 
anything. You may think there are many 
difficulties and, of course, will have to learn 
something you do not like, never cared for, 



54 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

and be inclined to think they increase your 
hardship. Education is a minor hardship so 
insignificant in comparison with the struggles 
of those without this foundation that it should 
not be considered. While the thing may ap- 
pear hard, and you may feel imposed upon, 
there will come a period when the fascination 
of work will make things not only easy but a 
pleasure. That is the time a man begins to 
"arrive." 



Where to Learn a Trade 57 



CHAPTER V. 

WHERE TO LEARN A TRADE. 

WHERE to learn a trade is probably the 
most important question that will enter 
into the life of a boy. If he is in the city or liv- 
ing in the country the matter will be equally 
problematical. If in the city, there will be many 
places to choose from ; if in the country, he 
may have to travel far. But the one thing 
of most importance is, that he should not look 
to the big establishments, but the smaller and 
less important places, where he may learn the 
details of his work. In the smaller shops it is 
usual for the boss or owner to be in close 
touch with every one of his workmen. He is 
the superintendent, manager, foreman and in- 
deed, the ideal workman. To him the appren- 
tices can look for guidance. He knows the 



58 Why a Boy Should Lemii a Trade 

business in every detail. He has probably 
begun as an apprentice boy himself, and has 
learned all the hard drudgery that lies between 
the beginner and the expert. He can let the 
apprentice know all the little tricks of the 
trade that the specialist never seems to com- 
prehend. He will take pleasure, as a rule, in 
seeing that the boy is gradually taught the 
little things which go to make up the com- 
pleted workman. It is all to his interest, be- 
cause the sooner the boy has learned some 
of those tricks of the trade, the more useful he 
will be to his employer. 

In a small shop, in whatever business, 
there is more work done on repairs than any- 
thing else. Take, for instance, an automo- 
bile. It may be of the most modern construc- 
tion and may only have been out of the sales- 
room but a month when something has gone 
wrong with the mechanism. The owner does 
not know what the matter is and so it goes 
to the repair shop where the boy is employed. 
Of course, it is not given into his hands; but 



Where to Learn a Trade 59 

some expert workman is detailed to take the 
machine apart and find, not only where the 
difficulty lies, but what can be done to remedy 
the defects. The boy, as helper, can see what 
the expert workman does. From this he will 
learn how the machine has been built, and how 
it can be repaired. Besides, in the smaller 
places there are fewer workmen and it is es- 
sential that they be all-around men, who can 
make, unmake and repair when necessary. 
Under the tutelage of such men the boy not 
only learns what the specialist starts with, but 
all the rudimentary things the specialist some- 
times has overlooked. 

There may not be a large volume of work 
in those smaller places, but the boy will get a 
much greater variety. If he goes into a large 
factory or a large establishment of any sort, he 
will learn only the particular branch of one 
trade which the man, to whom he is intrusted, 
has specialized. There, also, he will have to 
"run" for so many that he may have no par- 
ticular friend, but in the small factory or 



60 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

establishment he will have to be in close 
touch with a tradesman who knows his busi- 
ness from A to Z, and who will be only too 
willing, as a rule, to let him know anything 
he asks. 

The boy should never be afraid of any 
task that is imposed upon him by the man 
who knows his business. It may seem dis- 
tasteful. There was a sailor boy once who 
had just joined his ship. He was carried away 
by the romance of the sea. He thought it was 
all plain sailing, wearing brass bound uni- 
forms and giving orders. But he was an ap- 
prentice seaman, and when he got over the 
first three days of bad weather and seasick- 
ness, he was ordered by the mate to get a 
tar bucket for one of the sailors, who was 
working on the mast. The boy, having been 
brought up well, used to napkins at the dinner 
table, and other luxuries of home life, picked 
up the tar bucket by its rope handle between 
his finger and thumb. In this fashion he car- 
ried it to the mate. The ship's officer, in rather 



Where to Learn a Trade 61 

harsh language, ordered him to put the bucket 
on the deck, and then, seizing the boy by both 
wrists, plunged his hands into the tar. "Never 
be afraid of tar again," said the mate, and so 
the boy learned the first lesson in being a 
seaman. 

In whatever business the youth may em- 
bark it is always necessary to reraember that 
the hardest jobs are the first jobs. The young 
man who can, with an apparently smiling face, 
do all the drudgery, the rough work, and the 
"tar bucket" business around an office, or fac- 
tory, or establishment, is probably the one 
who, everything else considered, will finish 
at the top, or very closely to it. 

One of the disadvantages of a big factory 
or establishment is that the specialist has for- 
gotten everything but his own particular line. 
If there is an unusual job to be done, he can- 
not undertake it because he can only do it, 
he thinks, with special machinery which the 
factory or establishment may not have. The 
man who comes up from the small place has 



62 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

been used to thinking. There are always 
more ways than one of kiUing a cat. The man 
who can think can usually find a way out of 
any difficulty. 

The very latest thing is wireless teleg- 
raphy. For this new system it has been found 
that monster poles must be erected. The 
highest in the world are said to be those on 
Mt. Tamalpais, not far from San Francisco. 
They are three hundred feet high and expected 
to carry messages as far as Honolulu. When 
they were built they were constructed section 
by section horizontally on the ground. Then 
the engineers, after much figuring and wasting 
of time, managed to get them to their three 
hundred feet of perpendicularity. It was a 
hard job and hailed with much acclaim 
throughout the engineering world. Similar 
poles only a few score feet less in height were 
erected on the Government Naval Reserva- 
tion at San Juan, Porto Rico, by sending sec- 
tion after section up one under the other in 
less than a week. The work in California was 



Where to Learn a Trade 63 

done by eminent engineers ; that in Porto 
Rico by a boatswain's mate who had learned 
his business as a common sailor. He had the 
rudiments that always tend to quicker, better, 
and more expert work when followed by 
study. 

While the boy is learning" he should not 
forget that, although he is drawing very small 
wages, he may be costing his employers a con- 
siderable amount of money for the knowledge 
they are imparting to him. He is liable to 
spoil a piece of work, to break tools, make 
mistakes, injure machines, and do many other 
things that will figure in the expense bill. 
Besides these, he is taking the time of an 
expert workman, occasionally, who may be 
imparting knowledge to him. He may feel 
that he is being imposed on, made a drudge, 
and being otherwise mistreated. But he 
should always remember that he is being 
taught. 

It is because of the attitude of so many 
lads that some factories have said, "We don't 



64 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

want to be bothered with boys." However, 
some of the greatest mechanical estabHsh- 
ments in this country have overlooked the 
attitude of the boys, and are now taking young 
men as apprentices. They are practically giv- 
ing away trades to the youths who are capable 
enough to pass the preliminary inspections 
that are required. Some of these young men 
appreciate the benefit which has practically 
been handed to them'. All of them should. 
There is no greater gift that a boy can receive, 
than that of having some trade or means of 
livelihood at his finger tips. With the me- 
chanical ability in his fingers, if he will use his 
brain, he can increase his income, his useful- 
ness to himself, his employer and to the world 
at large manyfold. 

All of the German princes and princesses, 
sons of Kaiser William II, and the children of 
the various rulers of the smaller German prin- 
cipalities have to learn a trade. Some of them 
are cobblers, woodcarvers, painters, etc. The 
princesses can use the needle and are experts 



Where to Learn a Trade 65 

in housework. If royalty, which is supposed 
to be hedged about with all the luxuries that 
the human mind can crave for, can see fit to 
have its children so educated as tradesmen, 
while really sitting in what is known as "the 
royal purple," why should not the average 
boy, who has nothing to look forward to 
unless he has what is called "rainbow luck," 
learn a trade? 

He should learn it rightly; learn never to 
be a copyist, but original. The ma.n who has 
to copy never gets higher than second place. 
The boy ought to aspire to be master of the 
situation. 



A Word to the Apprentice 69 



CHAPTER VI. 

A WORD TO THE APPRENTICE. 

ONCE a boy has made up his mind which 
trade he wishes to learn, one of the 
most valuable assets he will have will be te- 
nacity of purpose. This does not mean "bull- 
headedness," but that, in addition to keeping 
his eye on everything he can pick up, he be at- 
tentive, polite and obliging. This will aid him 
very much in getting information and instruc- 
tion from his associate workmen, as well as 
from the foreman under whose charge he may 
be. Many who have started as apprentices 
have given up their work in disgust because 
they could not succeed in performing certain 
tasks after one or even more trials. They 
would quit, and as a result they were sorry 



70 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

through life for not having more ambition to 
stick to that particular trade, and to finish 
their apprenticeship. 

One of the peculiarities in this country 
at present is that men jump from one thing 
to another because they find there is more 
money for the time being in what they are 
most lately attracted to. A good mechanic 
should not try to be a soap salesman, because 
he finds that he can make more dollars for 
the time being in his new business. If he 
would stick to his own trade, think and be- 
come an expert, so far as he can, he would 
without doubt in a few years be making far 
more money as an expert mechanic than he 
would be trying to learn the business of soap 
selling. Of course, this is leaving out of 
the question the fact that he may have been 
more suited in the beginning to be a soap 
seller than a mechanic, which again empha- 
sizes that the boy, in choosing the business 
which is to be his life's work, should carefully 
consider what work he wants to undertake, 



A Word to the Apprentice 71 

and make up his mind to put up with the pre- 
liminary hardships. 

For the workboy, one of the first and 
most important steps is to learn to handle his 
tools, or if he is put to a machine to compre- 
hend every detail of it. He must learn how 
to care for his tools, because care and handling 
are very different things. For instance, a 
cowboy might be a dead shot with a revolver, 
a knack acquired by using other people's pis- 
tols, but he would be a very poor cowboy if 
he did not know how to clean and care for 
his pistol. A man may be able to handle tools 
if someone else cares for them, but the man 
who can not only handle but care for his tools 
is the workman. One of the most universally 
used machines is the typewriter. There are 
multitudes of men and women who can strike 
the keyboard correctly, but of all the multi- 
tudes there are some who forget to put on 
the cover and to use the oil can, and they are 
not workmen. 

Every branch of trade has its own detail, 



72 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

and while the typewriter may stand as an in- 
stance in one, it is impossible to particularize. 
The boy himself must study and make it his 
business to follow his w^ork from the "raw 
material to the finished article." While he is 
thus engaged he will quickly learn what he 
most needs. Suppose the w^ork is of such a 
nature that specifications and detailed draw- 
ings are used. He will readily discover the 
necessity of taking drawing lessons, coaching 
up on mathematics, and such other schooling 
as the business may require. But the most 
important thing for the boy to learn is 
to obey. It has been said that no man can 
be a commander unless he has learned to 
obey, and no man can be a master unless he 
has served an apprenticeship. 

While the boy is learning his trade he 
should try to keep as his example the best 
mechanic in the shop. Watch him in every- 
thing he does, especially while he is at work. 
It is wiser to copy a successful man than an 
unsuccessful one. The boy will probably find 



A Word to the Apprentice 73 

that the best mechanic is a very systematic 
man. He has his tools where they can most 
easily be reached, and he does his work with 
less exertion and more enjoyment to himself 
than anyone else in the place. He is the true 
artist; he is living whilst he is working. He 
is no drudge. Others in the shop will have 
their work scattered, and lose valuable time 
searching here and there to find what they re- 
quire next. It is much easier to do things 
neatly than it is the other way. The best 
mechanic will always be on time, and that is 
one of the principal things the apprentice 
should remember. 

While the boy is training his hand he 
should also be training his brain. There are 
mechanics who learned to be mechanics by 
habit. Somebody had shown them how to 
do a certain thing. They never learn to think 
why a piece of work can be done a certain 
way and why not another. The man who 
teaches himself to think and reason is the one 
who becomes valuable, and draws the largest 



74 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

pay. It is the same man who gets the prefer- 
ence when work is scarce. No firm nor busi- 
ness man will discharge the best employees 
when work is at an ebb. They, individually, 
can do the work of two slovenly men. 

Perhaps one of the most usual tempta- 
tions that the mechanic is met by is that of 
using liquor. The boy who wants to become 
a successful workman should, during his ap- 
prenticeship, avoid men afflicted with the liquor 
habit. There is more misery resulting from 
over-indulgence in liquor than from almost any 
other excess. It undermines a man's consti- 
tution, it ruins his character, and a drunkard 
is a curse not only to himself but to his fam- 
ily. He has no credit, no friends, and his asso- 
ciates are of the least desirable kind. People 
have said, speaking of a friend, that "He is 
a good mechanic but for his drinking habits." 
A drunkard is no more a good mechanic than 
a criminal is a good citizen, and for any young 
man to get into the liquor habit is one of the 
greatest misfortunes. 



A Word to the Apprentice 75 

The young man while learning his trade 
should not have his nose continually to the 
grindstone. These are the years when a young 
man is apt to think that he is one of the 
strongest machines in the universe. If he is 
working at an engine, he feels as if he were 
almost as strong as the mechanism he con- 
trols. He should not forget that the engine is 
fixed and formed, while his body is still grow- 
ing; he should not forget that development, 
physically, has not ceased. It is the greatest 
good fortune in the world to be in possession 
of a physically well developed form. There- 
fore, the apprentice should not neglect his 
health and should get all the bodily exercise 
he can, especially if his trade is of such a char- 
acter that he is indoors during his working 
hours. 

When a young man has finished his ap- 
prenticeship, it will be of importance to him 
whether he should remain with the firm or 
seek fresh fields. He has only seen one method 
during his apprenticeship. There may be 



76 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

other better and later things, and systems 
which are being utihzed somewhere else. A 
few years spent in seeing how things are done 
in other places will not only broaden him as a 
workman but as a man. It is always best to 
know every trick of the trade, and the good 
workman not only learns his trade but learns 
it right. But every American boy should re- 
member that he is fortunate to live in a coun- 
try of plenty, and should learn how and what 
to do to get his share, and how to enjoy it 
when he finally "gets there." 



What He Can Do 79 



CHAPTER VIL 



WHAT HE CAN DO. 



EVERYBODY has heard of the handy 
man, that person without actual me- 
chanical experience who seems to know by 
intuition just how to mend things. He is in- 
variably the useful member of any household 
or community. Usually he would have made 
a skilled mechanic or a useful inventor had not 
his natural bent been thwarted in his youth. 
During the late war with Spain the value 
of the handy man as well as of the real me- 
chanic was shown with striking force in many 
instances. When the American Fifth Army 
Corps, under General Shafter, was fighting its 
way fiercely towards Santiago de Cuba, the 
fighting resulted one day in the sudden retreat 
from Siboney of the Spanish forces. Running 



80 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

from Siboney along the coast to Santiago was 
a narrow gauge railroad used for hauling ore 
to ships in the bay. The Dons had been using 
this railroad as a means of carrying forward 
men and supplies. In their hasty retreat they 
took time to dismantle the engine by throwing 
away, into the tall grass, some of the most 
vital pieces of machinery. After the Ameri- 
cans had completely driven them towards the 
city, and had time to breathe and think, the 
soldiers found the crippled engine, saw at once 
what parts were missing, and after a long 
search in the jungle discovered where they had 
been hidden. Then the handy man and the 
mechanic, working together, soon had the ma- 
chine in working order. This little old engine 
proved to be one of the most valuable allies 
of the American fighting men up until the 
time peace was declared and even later. It 
served on many occasions as a hospital train 
when the ambulances had broken down owing 
to the terrible trails over which they had to 
be driven. 




INTERIOR MODERN DAY COACH. THE BARNEY & SMITH CAR CO. 



What He Can Do 81 

In the Philippines, time and time again, 
soldiers took charge of the dinky little train 
that ran on the Manila-Dagupan Railroad. 
The train crews were all skilled mechanics 
who had elected for a time to fight for Uncle 
Sam. But when the necessity arose for their 
services as workmen, they did not hesitate to 
turn out as handy men on behalf of their coun- 
try at the very small pay of a private soldier. 

In many ways, for private, commercial or 
other needs, the knowledge of how to use the 
hand and mind is indispensable. The husband, 
or son, who can doctor up a clock, fix a win- 
dow sash, mend a broken picture, put on a 
door knob, and accomplish successfully the 
thousand and one little things that are con- 
stantly being mended around a house, is not 
only a comfort to himself but to all around 
him. The household that contains such a man 
saves money in expenses. 

It is not necessary that such a person 
should actually go through the formality of 
learning his trade in a factory, but he should 



82 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

at least take a course of manual training. 
This would give him a certain amount of real 
mechanical knowledge, and educate him both 
in construction and material. 

Around every house to-day there is some 
sort of machinery more or less intricate that 
often requires a little tinkering. It may be a 
bicycle or an automobile, a gas range or the 
plumbing, but whatever it happens to be the 
handy man or the mechanic can always be of 
use. Many well meaning parents seem to have 
the mistaken notion that for their children's 
welfare there cannot be too much school edu- 
cation. They overlook the inclinations and de- 
sires of their children who have a mechanical 
talent. Many a young man has come back from 
college, and gone right into a factory. It is 
embarrassing for a youth with such an edu- 
cation and training, and usually over twenty 
years of age, to go into a manufacturing es- 
tablishment and start alongside the boy ten 
years his junior. These are some arguments 



What He Can Do 83 

why the boy should learn a trade and learn it 
while he is young. 

In Europe there are several countries in 
which so much importance is attached to 
teaching a boy a trade that parents, instead of 
receiving payment, however small, for the 
work of the apprentice, must furnish a prem- 
ium, and often a stiff one, to the employer for 
according the youth this privilege of being 
taught. It is usually worth the money. The 
boys are willing and anxious to learn, and they 
have employers who are willing to teach them. 
That is what we want in this country — recep- 
tive apprentices, and bosses who will teach 
them. 



Chapter 
VIII. 



Labor Not So Hard As It 
Used To Be 



Labor Not So Hard as it Used to Be 87 



CHAPTER VIII. 

LABOR NOT SO HARD AS IT USED TO BE. 

IF the boy who is thinking of becoming a me- 
chanic will consider, for a moment, what 
improvements in the field have been accom- 
plished in the last twenty-five or thirty years, 
he will be amazed. The mind hardly can be 
brought to see where to begin and where to 
end in this connection. People who do not 
think, or are not in touch with what is going 
on, have no idea of the great accomplishments 
for the comfort of humanity that are being 
invented and produced yearly. For the boy 
who has a leaning in this direction, the best 
method to get acquainted with what is new is 
to keep a sharp eye on mechanical and tech- 
nical papers. Besides these, he should en- 
deavor to have such books as Appleton's En- 



88 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

cyclopedia, the Scientific American, Railway 
Journal and others that cover similar fields. 
The question, however, is so broad that it is 
almost impossible for the mechanical indi- 
vidual to comprehend fully what is being done. 
Hard labor on the farms and in the factory has 
been reduced. At home and when traveling 
there are all sorts of comforts due to mechan- 
ical genius that were unknown thirty years 
ago. 

Machinery is being invented, not only to 
comfort humanity, but actually to reduce the 
burden of the beasts as well. Feats are being 
accomplished that were thought impossible a 
score of years ago. And as we learn more and 
more every day how to harness the elements, 
the pleasure and comfort of the world are be- 
ing increased. This is said, not to give the 
impression that the mechanics are accomplish- 
ing wonders because they are smarter than 
anyone else. It is because they have the field 
that is the very broadest in existence and this 
field is growing every day. The demand for 



Labor Not So Hard as it Used to Be 89 

improvements is still on the increase, and no 
one who looks around can fail to realize that 
the world is on the verge of a still more won- 
derful mechanical age. 

Traveling by rail to-day is a luxury com- 
pared with what it was within the memory of 
men still in the prime of life. The sleeping 
car industry supports the entire city of Pull- 
man in Illinois, besides the thousands of men 
who are employed in these palaces on wheels 
along the road. Compare the latest automo- 
bile with the old-fashioned stage-coach, and 
the result is laughable when the period of time 
between them is reckoned. Think of the row- 
boat with all its muscle-producing hard work 
and the auto-boat that flashes along like a 
streak of electric fluid. Even the bicycle is 
a luxury and a labor-saving device. To pro- 
duce all these things it can be seen that some 
mechanical genius must have been busy with 
both hands and brain, to bring them to their 
present development. No sensible person can 
look around and dispute that inventions, such 



90 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

as these, are not beneficial. For our times 
steam and electricity have done wonders, and 
the people to-day used to those wonders, can 
scarcely understand how our immediate fore- 
fathers managed to get along at all. From 
what we have done in our time, it is fair to 
assume that our descendants will look back 
at us with amazement, laugh at our old- 
fashioned way of doing things and wonder 
why we did not know better, or do differently. 
Just as we think that our grandfathers were 
old fogies, so fifty years from now, our grand- 
children may be tittering at us. 

Had it not been for the invention of the 
sewing machine and improved methods of 
manufacture in cloth, we could not enjoy the 
cheap and good clothing that can be so easily 
procured to-day. It would take a great many 
tailors to produce half the garments that are 
absolutely necessary at the present moment, 
if by some miracle all our machinery were de- 
stroyed. 

Take the shoe situation ; any man in the 



Labor Not So Hard as it Used to Be 91 

prime of life can well remember when the cob- 
ler would have to charge seven dollars, eight 
dollars, or nine dollars for a pair of boots or 
shoes that are now selling for three or four 
dollars. The shoes were no better than they 
are to-day, nor was the material. Think of the 
newspaper presses that print, count, fold and 
stack ready for delivery, almost ten thousand 
copies an hour. The result is that to-day we 
can buy a paper for a penny, whereas, only a 
few years ago, there was less news for five 
cents. 

Almost any invention creates a demand 
for work, and a desire for further luxuries. 
Still there are men occasionally who insist 
that machinery takes away work from the 
laboring classes, and in a certain sense it does. 
But whoever argues from this standpoint does 
not have the right point of view. It is a fact 
that no machine consumes any material neces- 
sary as food for man or beast. If the mechan- 
ism that does the work of ten men consumed 
the amount of nourishment required for these 



92 Why a Boy Skoiild Learn a Trade 

men it would be an interference and a menace. 
Machinery never raises the price of food or of 
the necessities of life. It simply works in the 
most laborious fashion and always without 
complaining, which is more than can be said 
of some men. Machinery is relieving human- 
ity of the heavier burdens and has done a great 
deal to shorten working hours and make 
labor easy. 

There is scarcely a household in the coun- 
try in which a piano is not one of the posses- 
sions. Thirty years ago a much ruder instru- 
ment was considered a most expensive luxury 
to be seen only occasionally. But the im- 
proved methods of manufacture have resulted 
in their being put on the market at such a low 
figure, and of such splendid quality, that they 
are now within the reach of the majority. In 
this one simple thing, machinery has done 
much for education. What would the home of 
to-day be without modern ranges, gas stoves, 
well equipped bath rooms, hot and cold water, 
convenient furnaces and all those other things 



Labor Not So Hard as it Used to Be 93 

without which we now can scarcely get along. 
The modern man does not have to rise in the 
morning, split wood and kindle a fire before 
breakfast; he does not go out to the well to 
draw water. Through mechanical genius, 
these methods have been improved. One has 
but to look around to see that the mechanic 
almost has the world at his feet to-day. 

As an illustration, just think how one 
small man, the engineer in charge of a large 
locomotive, can handle a thousand ton train, 
move it at fifty miles an hour, stop it at will 
within a comparatively short distance, start 
it without any perceptible effort and, indeed, 
control this modern thunderbolt more easily 
than the laborer handles his wheelbarrow. 



Chapter 
IX. 



W^hen a Man is a Good 
Mechanic 



When a Man is a Good Mechanic 97 



CHAPTER IX. 

WHEN A MAN IS A GOOD MECHANIC. 

THE boy may ask himself, "What are the 
quaHfications of a good mechanic?" There 
are good mechanics, but there is no perfect 

mechanic. There never will be until progress 
stops. What was good practice one or two 
years ago is out of date to-day. And yet some 
of us may think we know it all. 

To be a good mechanic means hard work 
and much study. The good mechanic is the 
man who can do perfect, up-to-date, and ar- 
tistic work, whatever his line may be, without 
aid or instruction from others. He should be 
able to do this work in reasonable time. If it 
takes him twice as long to finish a job as it 
takes another man, no matter how well his 
work may be done, he cannot be considered a 



98 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

good mechanic. He is an expensive mechanic. 
When a man can handle all kinds of tools and 
any kind of machinery without making mis- 
takes, without spoiling material, and when he 
is self-capable, he may be called a good me- 
chanic. To acquire such proficiency takes 
many long years. If at the end of his appren- 
ticeship the boy is turned out and informed he 
is a good mechanic, tell him not to rest on his 
laurels, but to find out the many things in his 
own line that he has neither heard nor seen. 

The word "mechanic" seems to suggest 
overalls, sweat and grime. As a matter of 
fact, all heavy and hard work is performed 
now mostly by machinery. This applies to 
every branch of trade. As the physical labor 
has decreased, there has been a greater strain 
on the mental. The pick and shovel are still 
to be seen everywhere and earth and stone 
are still as heavy as they were years ago. The 
wheelbarrow and the hod are still in use to a 
great extent. But there is a steam shovel, 
the steam carrier, the steam plow and many 



When a Man is a Good Mechanic 99 

other mechanical devices that can do the ex- 
cavating for which formerly hundreds of men 
had to be employed. Now the mechanic who 
can control those vast engines, who can repair 
them and direct them, is doing the work of 
scores of laborers. 

Sometimes it may cost too much for such 
a machine to be applied because common labor 
is the cheapest labor in the world. But with 
a trade it is different. No laborer can take 
the place of the tradesman. If the man who 
runs the steam shovel finds that his shovel is 
out of employment because a horde of foreign- 
ers can be secured cheaper than mechanism, 
there are many other appliances with which 
he is familiar and which are always working. 
This is particularly true if he is a good me- 
chanic 

Take the carpenter's trade first, because 

he is known in every country side. Thousands 

of people can remember when logs were cut 

into timber by hand. They were then rolled 

over a pit. With one man above and one man 
LOFC, 



100 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

below it was sawed. This kind of hard 
labor is unknown in our country to-day. 
Machinery does almost everything except the 
tree cutting. Not many years ago carpenters 
and builders would rip their own lumber, 
make their own mouldings, doors, door frames, 
windows and window casings. All this is done 
in the mills to-day because machinery has been 
perfected. The other wood workers, such as 
coopers and wagon builders, would split most 
of their logs and hew them into shape. They 
had to dress up rough lumber, and it 
was very hard work. It is much easier 
to let a piece of wood run through a 
machine than to put it on the bench and to 
work it by hand. Cabinet work, wagon work, 
agricultural implement work and many other 
branches of carpentry are now turned out by 
machine instead of by hand. Now the real 
hard work is performed by the machine. But 
the mechanic who has to watch the increased 
speed requires to have a much more nimble 



When a Man is a Good Mechanic 101 

brain than the man who worked a score of 
years ago. 

Another instance is the printing business. 
Less than twenty years ago the work of set- 
ting up by hand the type for a large news- 
paper required scores of men, but the mechan- 
ical genius invented the typesetting machine, 
and now less than one-fourth of the old time 
force can accomplish the same work and often 
in quicker time. And as another instance, 
while a printer was sitting at his machine he 
discovered that he lost time getting "slugs" 
which had to be cut by hand. So for several 
years he experimented, until he perfected an 
attachment to the machine which now does 
the slug cutting in one-tenth the time and at 
about one-tenth the cost of the old method. 
That is how the nimble brain can be utilized 
by the mechanic in saving time, saving men 
and saving cost. 

If a mechanic can think out a way to 
finish a piece of work in one operation instead 
of two, he is a valuable man. If he can think 



102 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

out a new machine that will do twice as much 
as the old one he is the right kind of me- 
chanic. It is not only in the woodwork line 
that machinery has done wonders, because it 
has done much more in the manufacturing 
of all kinds of metal; the old-fashioned way 
of puddling iron was by hand, and it cost more 
in money and perspiration per ton than the 
present method. 

Iron and steel to-day are sold at about 
a cent and a half per pound, and if considera- 
tion is taken of the amount of labor to get the 
iron ore out of the ground, the railroad haul- 
ing, lifting and handling, the coal and flux 
required to melt it, as well as power and 
machinery, it is difficult to realize how it can 
be done for such a small amount of money. 
Again it is the machine that talks. Mechan- 
ically nothing could be more instructive than 
a visit to a rolling mill. There it is possible 
to see how easily tons of metal are handled by 
machinery, and how easily tons of raw ore can 
be turned into salable iron and steel. 



When a Man is a Good Mechanic 103 

This is all done by machinery. In the 
old-fashioned time if a certain shape of iron 
was wanted it had to be hammered until the 
requisite dimensions were gotten. Now, in 
general and structural iron work, all shapes 
are made by machinery and it only requires 
the putting of them together for the various 
purposes intended. The modern shop will 
punch holes with pneumatic tools, rivet with 
pneumatic hammers, lift and handle with pneu- 
matic cranes, and were it not for this cheap 
method of producing the country could not 
enjoy the many great structures built of iron 
and steel. 

This is where the man with the thinking 
cap can make a hit. There are thousands of 
varieties of machines, and the more machinery 
that is invented the more seems to be re- 
quired. It is a fact that the inventing of one 
machine creates the demand for another. It 
takes machines to build machines, but ma- 
chinery helps to produce articles at moderate 
prices. 



104 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

The machine-made mechanic is the only 
thing of this kind that is not entirely useful. 
If a man must be a mechanic let him be a 
good mechanic, a real mechanic. There is 
little use of being a half mechanic, or the 
helper's helper. The high grade mechanic is 
the only kind. 



Work and Play 107 



CHAPTER X. 

WORK AND PLAY. 

HAVING said so much to encourage 
young men to get interested in their 
work, it is necessary to let them understand 
that their entire life should not be spent in the 
shop. Everyone requires to pay some atten- 
tion to recreation and pleasure, after the toil 
of the day is over. As the old adage has it 
"Much work and no play makes Jack a dull 
boy." 

When the whistle blows and you pass out 
of the factory gates, or the workshop door, leave 
all your business behind. If a fair day's work 
has been accomplished, value received has 
been returned for wages, and the mind should 
be occupied with nothing concerning the shop 
until it is necessary once more to return to 
the daily round. Never carry the shop home. 



108 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

"Talking shop" should never be indulged in 
unless it is absolutely necessary outside of 
working hours. All leisure time, except that 
spent in study, should be dedicated to rest and 
recreation. 

Worrying about work is one of the worst 
habits that a young mechanic can indulge in. 
If a mistake has been made and the discovery 
comes too late to correct it, nothing is more 
idle than to waste time wondering what the 
boss will say the next morning. This habit 
is one that is liable to grow. When the young 
mechanic rises to an important and respons- 
ible position, it is apt to play havoc with his 
physique. The boss, who is responsible for 
many men under his care, and numerous de- 
tails entrusted to those in his charge, will not 
last very long, either as a foreman or a good 
specimen of humanity, if he permits himself 
to worry. 

The evening should be the working man's 
own time. When he goes to his home he 
should be ready to take up any subject of con- 



Work and Play 109 



versation that the day may bring, and not per- 
mit his shop troubles to rob himself, his fam- 
ily or his friends in joint conversation and 
joint pleasure. Should he be foolish enough 
to permit himself to brood, it is almost in- 
evitable that he will rob himself of a good 
night's rest. This will leave him in poor shape 
to shoulder his responsibilities when he re- 
turns the following day. He should read his 
evening paper with attention, take an interest 
in the routine round of news, mingle with his 
fellows and, in general, behave like a civilized 
being. Some men go home in an ugly mood 
because they have had trouble at the works, 
and they want to tell everybody about it. 

The young mechanic should never try to 
make his friends believe that he is of such im- 
portance that it would be impossible for his 
employers to get along without him. The 
world goes on, and business progresses, no 
matter how important he may think he is, for 
there is always another to take his place at 
any time. Worry is like a sneak thief, it will 



110 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

work in on a man. interfere Avith his mental 
capacity and his constitution almost before he 
is aware that he is giving aw^ay to it. Many 
a man with responsibiHties has worked him- 
self into a nervous wreck because he did not 
know how to lay it aside or guard against it. 

Men who have been discharged from em- 
ployment sometimes give Avay to worrv' when 
they have the whole earth before them in 
which to look for another job. It is impossible 
to get physical rest until mental rest has been 
achieved, and both are most important. The 
man who is unemployed and idling his time 
away seems to be resting, but the best authori- 
ties have guaranteed that he is never con- 
tented. Where there is no real work there 
can be no play. AVhen it all looks like play, 
there is nothing real about it. But one of the 
absolute necessities for him who does spend 
his days in hard work, mental or physical, is 
that he should have some time, at frequent 
intervals, in which to forget that which he has 
been doing. 



Work and Play 111 

•The young man in the shop, even should 
he be studying hard after hours, should take 
his evenings out at least twice a week, and 
should plan so that he can afford a day or even 
an entire week off, occasionally. The work- 
man who can do this is looked up both by 
his fellows and his employers. The person 
who can never afford to take a vacation is 
either a miser or a spendthrift and neither can 
be a good workman. He owes it to himself 
and to his family to enjoy an occasional day's 
outing. An evening spent in the theatre, or a 
day in the picnic ground, fishing or outdoor 
sports, are always good practice, and should 
be on the program of every one steadily em- 
ployed. These are merely suggestions. Each 
one must judge by his own desire just what 
kind of relaxation is most benefiting. Men 
who have easy work, such as watching a big 
machine, tending an engine, taking charge of 
a lathe or planer, when they want to lay off 
could do nothing better than take a gun and 
walk twenty miles. For the young mechanic, 



112 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

no matter how hard his work may be, a good 
walk is one of the best of recreations, because 
it will rest the mind and give him a chance 
to think over the things other than those at 
which he has been employed in the workshop. 

While evenings should be laid aside for 
fun, there should be others devoted to educa- 
tion. A night or two a week devoted to school- 
ing will help anyone in a most wonderful 
fashion. After the young man has become 
sufficiently acquainted with his business to 
understand what will aid him to become more 
proficient, he should take up a line of study at 
a night school. Should he be in the city this 
is easily accomplished. If in a smaller place, 
there are correspondence schools, or he may 
arrange for private lessons. He may discover 
that mathematics will help him considerably, 
or it may be drawing; but whatever the line 
may be, from chemistry to the Chinese lan- 
guage, he should discover what it is, and then 
go after it. If he is ever to be a skilled me- 
chanic or rise to a responsible position, he 



Work and Play 113 

must have an education. It is true that a man 
with a trade, but without an education, has 
an advantage over the laborer; but the man 
with both an education and a trade is doubly 
fortified. 

The young man who takes care of his 
mentality and physique by dividing his even- 
ings between recreation and study, is able to 
serve his firm in the highest capacity. When 
the chance offers he knows how to go into 
business for himself, and there is no reason why 
he should not be successful even if he has to 
start without capital. He possesses what 
other people need and what they will have to 
pay for. With so many men uneducated in 
the higher branches of their business, the man 
who knows has an absolute advantage. 

Education is easy to get nowadays. It 
is cheaper than ever it was. In every trade 
to-day, with so much development, more 
knowledge is required in every branch. Manu- 
facturers are turning out machinery and im- 
plements of all kinds, that are far more com- 



114 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

plicated and much superior to those of the 
past. So it becomes necessary to write more 
specifications, to have more drawings and put 
fuller details into writing than formerly. It 
is this which makes the necessity for higher 
education. 

The first class mechanic who has turned 
out a good piece of work, should be able to 
place his production on record, technically 
and clerically. Indeed, until he can do this 
he can hardly be called a good mechanic. It 
is for this reason, I believe, that so many of 
our successful men have given liberally for 
educational purposes. They know what is re- 
quired. Young men with technical ability and 
educational advantages which have been out- 
lined, are very few even in this progressive 
country, and the big employers are constantly 
on the lookout for them. Education will not 
only bring a man higher in his daily occupa- 
tion, but it will give him much better stand- 
ing socially. Therefore, the young mechanic 
should overlook no opportunity which will 



Work and Play 115 

enable him to equip himself for the responsible 
positions in his business. 

Suppose a mechanic, skilled enough at 
his business but without any particular school- 
ing, should stumble on an idea that was worth 
patenting. He would be unable to go through 
the necessary routine to secure the benefits 
which ought to accrue from his brightness. 
With an education he would not only know 
how to go about this, but might develop the 
original ideas into something that would not 
only make him wealthy, but bring him fame 
as well as fortune. 

Learn to work and learn to think. Train 
your mind just as an athlete gets his body 
into perfect condition. 



Importance of Education 119 



CHAPTER XI. 

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION. 

THERE is scarcely a boy but who at one 
time or another gets a longing for that 
glamour of the sea which he picks up from 
reading romances. The modern romance of 
ships and the ocean is still to be written, and 

when it is the mechanic will play one of the 
most heroic parts. There is a great difference 
between the rollicking seamen of half a cen- 
tury ago and the men who now control both 
merchant vessels and warships. The differ- 
ence is that between the laborer and the skilled 
mechanic. In the old days of sailing vessels, 
ropes and rigging and some smattering of 
navigation were all that the best of them were 
called on to know. Nowadays there is ma- 
chinery of every sort, from the simplest to the 



120 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

most intricate, and from the smallest to the 
heaviest, on board all big vessels. The boy 
who wants to be a good sailor of to-day finds 
himself far down the ladder unless he has some 
mechanical ability. 

On a battleship from the highest officer 
down almost to the apprentice, mechanical 
skill counts towards promotion. Even the 
gunners, the men who do the fighting in war 
time, must have this ability, for they handle 
some of the most delicate mechanism, have 
to care for it and know how to repair it, even 
in the piping times of peace. All sorts of 
tradesmen are utilized aboard the fighting 
ships that go to make up the navies of the 
world. From the heavy working blacksmith 
and the boiler maker to the finest of elec- 
tricians, thousands of skilled men are employed, 
not only by Uncle Sam, but even the smallest 
power that has a navy. The "Jolly Tar" is 
no longer a rough fisted fellow, but a workman 
who understands his trade. 

In the merchant marine in which are 



Importance of Education 121 

some of the largest steamships in the world 
the same thing holds good. Even on the big 
modern sailing ships, although they are pro- 
pelled by canvas, there is usually a steam 
winch, perhaps steam steering gear, and an 
electric light installment. That these may be 
cared for properly, there have to be mechanics 
among the officers. On the big passenger 
ships that often carry a million of money, be- 
sides a fortune in cargo and a thousand passen- 
gers, it is on the engineer and his staff of me- 
chanics that safety depends. So that it can 
be seen the mechanic has invaded even the 
romance of the sea. 

These men, just as much as their brothers 
ashore, require much more skill now than they 
did in the past. They also require a much bet- 
ter education. To make a comparison, we 
will look at a simple reciprocating engine. It 
is of the sort that was generally used twenty 
or thirty years ago, and was termed a "plain 
slide valve" engine. Compare that now al- 
most antiquated machine with the reciprocat- 



122 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

ing engines of to-day, and it is found there is 
a vast difference in favor of the present ap- 
paratus. The mechanic who was able to de- 
sign and build the old-fashioned affair would 
be lost to-day when handling the present re- 
ciprocating engines, without mentioning tur- 
bines or gas engines. If the attention of the 
mechanic who worked thirty years ago were 
called to the engine of to-day, with its Corliss 
valve gear, or the automatic cut-off, improve- 
ments which are now a great saving to the 
users of steam engines, it would puzzle him 
completely. If one should go a step farther 
and call the old timer's attention to the com- 
pound engine, the triple and quadruple expan- 
sion and the condensing, he would find that he 
had to learn his trade all over again. He 
would be the quickest to see that the engine 
builder of to-day must learn and know a great 
deal more than his brother of the past. 

These are only a few of the great many 
reasons why the mechanic of to-day needs a 
better mechanical training and a better educa- 



Importance of Education 123 

tion than the man who used his tools thirty 
years ago. 

The boy ought to understand that once he 
has learned his trade he is far better equipped 
to receive the high technical education than 
the man who has never touched the practical 
end of a business. A thoroughly trained work- 
man is the only one who can aspire, with ease 
and less loss of time, to the best position. 



Chapter 
XII. 



The Foreman and Super- 
intendent 



"•^ 



The Foreman and Superintendent 127 



CHAPTER XIL 

THE FOREMAN AND SUPERINTENDENT. 

IF the young man has kept to that fixed pur- 
pose of becoming an expert in his particu- 
lar line, and if he is of the right kind he will 
soon find appreciation from his employers. 
This will come in the form of advancement. If 
it is found that he is able to take charge there 
is no employer but will offer him a better posi- 
tion as sub-boss, or foreman, and of course, 
the successful foreman, sooner or later, reaches 
a superintendency, or managership, with per- 
haps something even higher in store for him. 
Talking fromi a practical standpoint, the man 
who makes a good foreman must not only be 
a finished mechanic but have possession of 
other marked qualifications, before he can 
really be said to fit the position. 



128 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

The man who intends to hold authority 
over his workers should be a good judge of 
human nature, and have the ability to handle 
and deal fairly with men. The power to grasp 
details must also be his, for, as he advances 
in position, this sort of work increases. Small 
annoyances must never cause him to lose his 
temper, so before accepting any such respons- 
ible position, it is the duty of the candidate to 
consult himself as to his ability and capacity. 
Responsibility will rest heavily on his shoul- 
ders, because the workman who accepts such 
an office must accept also every iota of the 
responsibility that goes with it, and that in full. 
Nothing should ever tempt him to either shirk 
or shift the blame. To some it is given to be 
gifted for such positions. 

The ideal foreman should be a teacher as 
well as a master. Should he find one of his 
workmen not accomplishing just what is ex- 
pected of him, the boss must never find fault 
unless he is able to remedy the error. When he 
is capable to take the workman's material or 



The Foreman and Superintendent 129 

tools, and show him a better, quicker and easier 
method, he is commanding that one man's re- 
spect, and will be successful with the others. 
On the other hand, if he is not expert enough 
and should discover that those under him are 
more skillful than he, that foreman is certain 
to be made a laughing stock. 

It often happens, and not only in factories, 
that men accept positions they cannot fill, or 
are put in charge by relatives through influ- 
ence. They accept the position, it might be 
said, on their nerve. The result is invariably 
bad, both to the candidate himself and the un- 
fortunates who have to obey him. Soldiers, 
who in the matter of obedience are little more 
than machines, often speak of a superior as a 
"good officer." This is the highest respect 
that can comxC from the private to the gentle- 
man with the commission. It means that al- 
though he may be a martinet in the matter of 
exacting obedience and full duty, he really 
does take care of those under him, listens to 
their complaints patiently, and sees that they 



130 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

receive everything to which they are entitled. 
The good foreman, or manager of any large 
establishment, ought to be what the soldiers 
call "a good officer." 

For a time it is possible that a foreman 
might bulldoze his way through, annoy the 
subordinates under him; and successfully close 
the eyes of his employer. But his inability is 
bound eventually to come to light. The real 
foreman is he who can teach his men how to 
produce more and better work, by improved 
methods ; to take advantage of short cuts, to 
get better results with less labor, and see that 
the men in his charge have the proper tools. 
He ought to have a knowledge of the right 
sort of material ; have that material on the 
ground in time ; secure such information so as 
not to change men from one job to another 
unnecessarily. The knack of being able to 
select the right man for the right kind of work 
will add to his value. Some workmen are 
better and quicker at one class of work than 
others, and a knowledge of this will aid not 



The Foreman and Superintendent 131 

only the foreman, but those below and above 
him to finish their tasks speedily and success- 
fully. 

The foreman or superintendent who feels 
it is his duty to deal fairly with his employers 
and the subordinates must be very impartial. 
It is his civil and human duty to take care of 
the men, but, first and foremost, he must look 
after the interests of his firm' or employer. 
With the proper sort of individual this can 
readily be done. 

For an individual to fail at anything is 
a good deal like the failure of a firm. Once 
bankrupt it has a hard road to travel, and the 
man who is unsuccessful finds a steep hill that 
he must climb back. While a man should not 
get discouraged, if meeting with little re- 
verses, at the same time prevention is better 
than cure. 

Therefore, if the mechanic feels within him- 
self that, notwithstanding all his expertness, 
he is lacking in the qualities of leadership, it 
will be to his own interests in the future not 



132 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

to accept an advancement for which he is 
probably unfitted. 

Men taking charge as foremen or super- 
intendents should be able to foresee trouble, 
prevent difficulty and avoid mistakes. They 
should in themselves have the ability, prac- 
tice and intelligence to teach their men how to 
guard against errors that must arise in manu- 
facturing. Anybody can detect a mistake 
after it has occurred and done its damage. It 
takes the experienced man to guard against 
it, to avoid it, or nip it in the bud before it 
creates havoc. To be a "top notcher" the 
workman must also be an organizer and un- 
derstand v/hat organization means. 



How Character Counts 135 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HOW CHARACTER COUNTS. 

WHEN the apprentice first enters the 
shop from which he hopes to come 
forth an expert mechanic, he should remember 
that his measure will be taken both by his 
bosses and his fellow workmen. A great deal 
will depend on his behavior. He must try to 
cultivate a good disposition and firm character. 
He should learn to be patient, to keep cool, and, 
according to the old saying, not "fly off the 
handle" on the spur of the moment. He should 
never lose his temper, no matter how trying the 
circumstance may be, but endeavor to keep per- 
fect control of himself. This is very important 
in order that the boy be successful. No fore- 
man will think much of the man who gets 
excited at every little thing. Nothing im- 



136 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

portant can be entrusted to his care, for in a 
moment of excitement he is liable to do things 
that he will be very sorry for shortly after- 
wards. Many men have lost splendid oppor- 
tunities by letting their tempers run away 
with them. 

It is, therefore, essential that the appren- 
tice should study his own disposition, temper 
and character, so that he may mold them for 
the better, not only for the benefit of himself 
but for the comfort of his associates. The 
boy will find that the workman who is ner- 
vous, excitable and jumps at conclusions never 
amounts to a great deal. The workm.an who 
takes everything into consideration, and thinks 
before he acts, is the one to be trusted and the 
one after whom the boy should try to pattern 
himself. It is not uncommon for a man on the 
spur of the moment to throw his job to the 
winds, only to find that he can't secure employ- 
ment, perhaps, for months. Had he kept cool 
at the right time for fifteen or twenty minutes, 
he probably would have found that there was 



How Character Counts 137 

nothing the matter. It ought to be impressed 
on every young man that he should never leave 
one employer until he is satisfied that he has 
secured another. And it is good practice never 
to leave one position unless it is to accept a 
better one. 

Some workmen think it is clever to quit 
suddenly, expecting to injure or spite the firm 
or boss by whom they are employed, but they 
are always hoisted on their own petard. The 
old adage holds good that "he who digs a 
grave for another usually falls into it himself." 
Spitework should never be practiced and espe- 
cially not in the workshop. It never does any 
good, but usually results in a great deal of 
harm. There is no shop in which there will 
not be a difference of opinion, at one time or 
another, while discussing construction or in 
social and political questions. This should 
never be permitted to become the cause of a 
quarrel, or rouse any feeling of animosity. On 
the other hand, such differences can easily be 
made to serve as a benefit on both sides. It 



138 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

is such discussions that bring out new id^as. 
When suggestions are advanced, the boy should 
learn to profit by them instead of quarreling 
over them. The boy may meet many men w^ho 
will believe that any divergence of opinion 
should be settled with the fist. He should 
school himself to believe that such things mean 
simply a display of ignorance and degraded 
character. 

'Jealousy among workingmen should al- 
ways be avoided. Some mechanics will growl 
because their neighbors are doing better work 
and earning more wages. It is a mistaken way 
of looking at a superior craftsman. It is far 
better to study his methods, learn his prac- 
tices and beat him if possible. The boy should 
say to himself, ''If Smith can do this I can also, 
and do it better." It is much more satisfac- 
tory and more profitable to have this feeling 
than to go around disgruntled, and showing 
jealousy. Trying to do the best possible will 
improve not only the disposition but the wages 
to be earned. 



How Character Counts 139 

The boy should always be firm, never at- 
tempt to lie, work no injury to his fellow-men 
and never say anything behind another's back. 
The boy with firm character will always face 
the truth. Should he be guilty of an error he 
will acknowledge it and, by doing so, find that 
he has gained respect. The boy who will 
admit his mistake, and say when he is in the 
wrong, can readily be helped, because he will 
learn experience through his misfortunes, and 
so endeavor to avoid them in the future. The 
most satisfactory man to deal with is the truth- 
ful man of good disposition, character and 
habits. A man with a clear conscience is never 
afraid to bring his grievance before the proper 
authority. 

Should at any time the apprentice imagine 
that he is being mistreated or neglected by his 
firm or employer, he ought to be man enough 
to go directly to headquarters and tell about it. 
The chances are all in favor that the explana- 
tion of the boss will set him right. If he kas 
a grievance he should not endeavor to console 
himself by stirring up strife in the shop, creat- 



140 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

ing additional trouble, but at once have the 
matter adjusted. He should never plot against 
anyone he may imagine is against him. If the 
apprentice can keep even some of this advice in 
mind he will leave the shop not only an expert 
mechanic, but a workman with hosts of friends. 
One thing absolutely indispensable is that 
a workman should never get it into his head 
that he cannot be replaced. There was a news- 
paper man once who, because he could draw 
cartoons, write poetry and "cover" any story, 
thought that his employers would never get 
along without him. The idea made him take 
privileges which no other members of the force 
would dare to. To his amazement one day he 
found himself discharged. This genius stood 
across the street and expected to see the news- 
paper building topple. About five years later 
he discovered to his chagrin that the paper 
had almost doubled its circulation since he left 
it. It is a good thing to remember there is 
always some one willing and able to fill your 
position, no matter how important it really 
is or you may think it to be. 



Future Possibilities 143 



CHAPTER XIV. 



FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. 



ONE of the most serious objections often 
raised when the question of whether a 
boy should or should not learn a trade, is that 
there cannot be much more opportunity for 
a man, because they have almost all been taken 
advantge of. This objection comes almost 
invariably from inexperience. In looking at 
this busy world and noticing all that is going 
on in every field of endeavor, the great im- 
provements and widely developed enterprises, 
no thinking person can believe that opportun- 
ity has passed. The age of opportunity is just 
beginning. ' 

The young man who wishes to become a 
mechanic should not feel discouraged because 
he has to learn a trade before he can really 



144 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

start out in life. The clear headed, ambitious 
youth need never be afraid at the yelping of 
the calamity howlers. He should firmly make 
up his mind that there is more than enough to 
do, and that far greater progress will be made 
in all directions during the future. There never 
was a time in past history when the man who 
wanted could not find the chance to advance 
himself if he bravely set his mind to it. If 
that has been true in the past, the future can 
hold nothing but a golden dawn, and that will 
be the dawn of the real mechanical age. 

Any authority will affirm the fact that 
there is no branch of trade in the world to-day 
that is absolutely perfect. Where there is lack 
of perfection, opportunity gets its chance. It 
has been said there is nothing new under the 
sun, and to paraphrase this it might be added 
that there ^re very few things not subject to 
improvement. There is not a manufacturer 
to-day who cannot see how his goods can be 
bettered, if he could only land on the right 
method to accomplish that end. The variety 



Future Possibilities 145 

of industries, and other branches of business, 
with the profusion of articles manufactured 
and produced, are probably a hundred fold 
what they were a hundred years ago. Taking 
the ratio of progression, any one can see what 
the result ought to be a century from now. 
Progress always goes forward; one invention 
creates a demand for another, and each im.- 
provement makes opportunities and the neces- 
sity for at least one more. 

The market for all manufactured articles 
is greater than it was a very fi^v years ago. 
From that it is easy to argue that the demand 
also must have extended. This counts not 
only in quantity but in quality. Compare an 
old-time railroad schedule with the very latest 
issues. When trains were first run twenty 
miles an hour was thought a phenomenal 
speed. During the years this has gradually 
been rising to thirty, forty or fifty miles an 
hour. To-day we are traveling from New York 
to Chicago in eighteen hours, but even this is 
not fast enough. In this age of steam and elec- 



146 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

tricity, the possibility is very close at hand that 
the man from Manhattan may get to the 
Windy City in twelve hours. It is more than 
likely that electricity will do it. All it requires 
is the proper application. Yet the grumblers 
try to tell us that all opportunity has passed. 

This very argument may be applied to 
our ocean steamers. Time was, within the 
memory of thousands still living, when those 
who wished to cross the Atlantic consumed 
weeks on the voyage. They suffered all kinds 
of hardships and had to put up with no slight 
degree of discomfort. Now the Atlantic trip 
is little more than crossing a ferry and almost 
as safe. At the same time the passenger is 
surrounded with every luxury he might com- 
mand in the finest hotel in the world. The 
Atlantic trip is made in five days. Ship build- 
ers and engineers, however, continue to plan 
for liners that shall be even faster and more 
comfortable. Again there is an opportunity. 

Even in this remarkable period when so 
much seems to be done by machinery there is 



Future Possibilities 147 

still far too great an amount of work to be 
accomplished by hand. No one can point to a 
machine of any description, built ten years 
ago, that is not utterly out of fashion to-day. 
This applies to modern buildings as well. The 
young would-be mechanic can again see for 
himself that he has ample chance to catch the 
opportunity. 

It has been a long procession through the 
ages to the apex of achievement at which we 
now find ourselves. The upward climb is still 
long, but can be accomplished by those who 
are willing to contribute skill and brains. If 
the mechanic will only try to be as perfect as 
he possibly can, will seek for opportunities, 
learn where, when and how to make improve- 
ments, he can push steadily higher up. 

Take notice of the men who are in the 
forefront of every great trade and business, 
and you will find that they never argue "there 
is no room for improvement." They are the 
very busiest in the van of development. If 
the young mechanic can think quickly enough. 



148 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

and work skillfully enough, to develop or im- 
prove something already in the market, there 
are thousands of able men seeking his aid. 
They will see that the clever mechanic will 
get as close to the top of the ladder as he has 
the native ability to reach. The men in the 
forefront receive the big wages, and this is 
what every young man should strive towards. 
Capacity for work means capacity for pay. 

If any one imagines there is nothing left 
to do let him look at the gigantic industries 
which are adding and adding to their plants 
every year. New companies are being organ- 
ized all the time, and the most mammoth un- 
dertakings are planned. 

Every boy knows what is being done on 
the Isthmus of Panama. The mechanic has a 
chance there. For years to come there will be 
thousands of opportunities for the man with 
brains, not only to advance himself, but even 
to receive the very highest wages, and actually 
make name and fame for himself. Yet some 
people say there are no opportunities. Niagara 



Future Possibilities 149 

Falls has been harnessed for power, and other 
monster undertakings of the same sort are now 
under way. For such work skillful mechanics 
must be employed. Only recently the great 
Navy of Russia was almost completely oblit- 
erated. The skillful mechanic who turns his 
hand to ship building might find his chance in 
the empire of the Great White Czar. 

The enormous amount of manufactures 
and machinery of all sorts shipped annually 
from this country is almost beyond belief. 
Still there is a cry for more. With all these 
facts, which only skim the surface of the sub- 
ject, it is hardly necessary to tell the young 
man or the beginner that he ought to 
feel encouraged because he is not too late 
His opportunities are far brighter than ever 
were those of our forefathers, and the future is 
of the rosiest. Therefore, no boy should hesi- 
tate for an answer to the question as to 
whether or not he ought to learn a trade. 

The calamity howler in labor circles claims 
that machinery is taking away opportunity 



150 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

from the workman. One has only to see that 
if some inventor could perfect machinery that 
would enable him to produce a good automo- 
bile for a hundred dollars, this would increase 
the demand for them to such an extent that 
twenty-five such machines would be built 
where only one is now produced. In other 
words, it would put the automobile within the 
reach of everybody, and everybody would have 
one. It is an absolute certainty that where 
the cost of production is reduced the demand 
will be increased. This is what machinery is 
doing to-day. 



Social Duties 153 



CHAPTER XV. 

SOCIAL DUTIES. 

EVERY good citizen should take a lively 
interest in social affairs and the work- 
man is a good citizen. Of course, he should 
remember that he is not one of the four hun- 
dred, and so should not attempt to copy their 
methods ; but he can have his own social life. 
Friends should try to spend an evening with 
each other as often as possible, take an inter- 
est in the little family gatherings, and attend 
meetings whether they are fraternal, chari- 
table, or of a political nature. It is the very 
best of schooling for the young man to listen 
to all the addresses, arguments and debates 
that he can. By this he learns that one man's 
ideas will not always predominate. The world 
has to submit to the majority and the young 
man has to learn that the majority rules. 



154 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

Not so very many years ago almost every 
village and every town had its debating society, 
where the vital questions of the hour were 
looked at for and against. These associations 
produced some great men in various lines, be- 
cause the arguments that were threshed out 
made keener wits and sharper minds. Many 
an astute lawyer who has, at this day, reaped 
the reward of energy and brains can look back 
to the old debating society in his home town 
and see where the foundation was laid for the 
fame that is now his. The man who has to 
talk must have his ideas arranged in his mind, 
or his speech will be incoherent and lame. 
Like everything else, the ability to make a 
speech can be cultivated. Talking before a 
gathering of friends and acquaintances not 
only tends toward quickness of thought, and 
nimbleness of tongue, but gives a self posses- 
sion that may stand a man in good stead in 
the years to come. It is a pity that the old- 
time debating societies seem to have gone to 
the wall. 



Social Ditties 155 



Of course, there is the social life of the sa- 
loon, but this is not to be advocated. The 
arguments heard there are more likely to be 
inspired by something other than wisdom. 
There are too many of the working class and 
many mechanics who take no interest what- 
ever in the social affairs of their own class. 
They do not wish to attend even a meeting, 
because they would not feel at home. The 
reason for this is simply that they never tried. 
A little practice will accomplish almost any- 
thing. To be without some social tie is not the 
way to live. There are many men who can- 
not make a speech or any sort of address, but 
there is nothing to hinder any one from having 
the ability to at least excuse himself in a polite 
and neat fashion. For a citizen, in a free and 
independent country, not to be able to attend 
a meeting is not a healthy condition of affairs, 
and every mechanic should remember that he 
is as much entitled to a front seat as any one 
in the assembly. The mechanic should be 
proud to occupy a prominent place, because 



156 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

it is his business to be his own representative. 
He should not only attend public gatherings, 
but never hesitate even to take office or to pre-; 
side. This is especially true in politics, which 
is most important in a country like this, where 
we all have a voice in the government. It is 
vital that the workman take a hand in politics, 
and an intelligent hand. He can only do this 
by mingling, as has been suggested, in every 
assemblage he has the right to attend. 

It is his duty to see that honest and good 
citizens are candidates for all positions and not 
to leave these matters to professional politi- 
cians. There are too many workmen who 
neglect politics entirely. Some even do not 
vote, and when election day comes there are 
those who have not the knowledge to cast a 
proper ballot. This argues that the man can- 
not be intelligent, and without broad intelli- 
gence there must be very little skill. Every 
workman, whether born in this country or 
abroad, should read and understand the Con- 
stitution of the United States and of the vari- 



Social Duties 157 



ous states, for there is no greater government 
on earth for the good of mankind. The young 
man should at least read one paper which dif- 
fers in politics from the opinion he himself 
holds. In this way he can see both sides of the 
question. The few hours that are required for 
such social duties or political ones, and for 
reading, every man, no matter how busy he 
may be, can well afford to spend. They will 
be to his advantage. 



TJie Workman as a Citizen 161 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE WORKMAN AS A CITIZEN. 

THE young mechanic should remember 
that he cannot be a first-class work- 
man unless he is a first-class man physically. 
For this it is necessary that he should live 
well. Learned men have said that it takes a 
lifetime to learn how to live rightly. Many 
who have great earnings, nice homes and fine 
positions are physical wrecks at the age of 
thirty-five when the prime of life ought to be 
just beginning. This is what the young man 
ought to strive to avoid. Whoever has broken 
health cannot be happy. 

A few simple rules, if carefully followed, 
will aid one greatly in the preservation of 
physique. The young workman should eat 
three good meals a day, keep regular hours, 



162 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

have plenty of sleep, no over-indulgence or 
expenditure, and see that he has some amuse- 
ment. Any man v^^ho will adhere to this, if 
he is without hereditary disease, need never 
worry about his well-being. He should get 
all the fresh air and exercise possible. This 
is simply doing justice to himself. Cheerful 
surroundings at home will aid considerably. 
He should carefully pick his associates. He 
should save his money and never spend any 
unnecessarily. Keeping the eyes and ears 
open, and the mouth and pocketbook shut, is a 
test that if carefully rentembered will insure 
a competence. 

One of the aims of every young working 
man should be to get a bank account, if only 
a very small one, as early as possible, and not 
only see that it is increased, if only a fraction 
at a time, but foster its growth. Many a man 
has lost an opportunity through not having the 
few necessary dollars to aid himi when he fell 
on a good idea. The man with a little capital 
always has the advantage, and commands re- 



The Workman as a Citizen 163 

spect. He is independent in a measure, and 
the world very soon finds this out. Some 
kind of insurance ought also to be carried. 
One dollar a week will go a long ways to 
carry a very respectable sum. It is well to 
start both a bank and the insurance payments 
before marriage, for then comes a period when 
money is always required and it invariably 
takes a few years before the home nest is 
cosily feathered. If the start is made early 
it will be all the easier as the years pass by. 

Every young man who has learned his 
trade should get married, because there is no 
better companion or more careful adviser 
than a good wife. His interests are hers, and 
she will be watching when he might have his 
eyes averted from: an opportunity that was 
passing in front of him. She will not only 
save him money, but, by making his home the 
place where he will spend his evenings, 
keep him from bad company which tempts 
more young workmen to ruin than anything 
else. Never spend money foolishly nor buy 



164 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

anything you do not really need. In the same 
way it is one of the most foolish things to 
need something you cannot buy. Borrowing 
is only honorable when the money sought is 
for an investment that will guarantee its re- 
turn. Borrowing money to spend is almost 
a crime. 

No good work can be done unless the 
mind behind the hands that accomplish the 
task is contented. Any one who will saA'e a 
dollar out of his earnings each week, establish 
himself substantially, get a home of his own 
and pay for it, can have contentment. It all 
rests with the man himself. First he should 
be able to earn enough to live, and then 
manage his affairs so as not only to take care 
of that money, but of his health and hap- 
piness and also of his family. This is no 
theory, because it is practised every day by 
many workmen. There are thousands 
throughout the country who are comfortable, 
have means, are contented, and respected as 
among the best citizens. All that is required 



The Workman as a Citizen 165 

is the right start at the earliest possible op- 
portunity. 

As for our country, it is no more or less 
than what the citizens make it. When they 
are prosperous, this country must be likewise. 
When manufacturing and business are flower- 
ing to the best advantage there is no reason 
why the entire land, and the whole people 
should not be equally so. While this is a com- 
paratively new country, it has had a good start, 
so that now it is far ahead of many of those 
old lands whose histories creep back into the 
fogs of time. The world is our competitor; 
nothing but skill and enterprise will keep us 
in the lead, and whilst we are there prosperity 
and independence will continue. These will 
add to the growth of our great industries, and 
to the number of our many happy homes. 

It is important to every young man that 
he learn to love his country and to have its 
welfare at heart. His interest is the country's. 
It is a mistake for the workman to howl against 
capital, because it is always necessary and 



166 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

the work it does is entitled to its interest. 
Capital should never be discouraged from in- 
vesting in business. At the same time, the 
man who does the really hard work, who uses 
his muscles and the skill of his fingers, the 
energy of his body and the keenness of his 
brain, who keeps at it from morning till even- 
ing, is justly entitled to a fair compensation, 
such as will enable him to live comfortably, 
to raise his family as he would wish, to edu- 
cate his children and to have a dollar or two 
left for a "rainy day." 

The motto should be "Live and let live." 
I sincerely hope that labor and capital will 
soon learn to understand each other better, 
for their interests are identical. They need 
each other and our country needs both. 




BADEN PUMPING STATION. ST. LOUIS WATER WORKS. 



Reward For Skill and Energy 169 



CHAPTER XVII. 

REWARD FOR SKILL AND ENERGY. 

4 4 T/^ EEP busy to keep happy." This Uttle 
1^. motto is a very good thing to keep 

in mind, because "Satan finds mischief still for 
idle hands to do." I think it is Kipling who 
says in one of his Orietnal poems that : — 

''He who does not work 
Must surely die." 

If the reward of working is that a man 
may live, then the more energetic and skillful 
that man can be the higher the reward he may 
gain. The prizes for being both energetic and 
skillful are many and rich. Whenever you see 
a successful man, you may rest assured that 
he is not one of the lazy kind, nor is he classed 
among the lowest in his particular line of busi- 



170 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

ness. To use a bit of slang, "if you want to 
get there you must get up and hustle." 

When the gold miner goes prospecting, 
if he wants to find the "dust," he does not sit 
down on the mountainside to dream. He has 
to dig. When the huntsman finds that he re- 
quires a venison steak for his dinner, he does 
not roll himself in his blankets beside the 
campfire, but takes his rifle and trudges through 
the woods until he finds the elusive game. It 
pays to be energetic and it pays much more 
to know your business thoroughly. Keeping 
these two things in mind, the reward is sure 
to come, because it has been said that "he who 
sows shall reap." s 

The man who is working is doing good, 
and when he is thus engaged he is almost 
sure to be happy. The industrious individual 
will always have plenty, if he understands the 
proper management of himself and his affairs, 
and industry will teach him this. He will 
never be in want, and that is a great reward, 
which only those who have ever met mis- 



Reward For Skill and Energy 171 

fortune will appreciate. Industry means am- 
bition and the ambitious citizen is always 
respected. It is the contrary with the lazy 
man, because the world has very little use for 
the person who will use neither his hands nor 
his brain. It has been said that money is the 
root of all evil, but, in this age, the word 
''money" might be blotted out and "laziness" 
substituted. When the lazy man is not mak- 
ing trouble for himself he manages to brew it 
for his neighbors. In this respect he who is 
engaged during the greater part of his waking 
hours has a clear conscience because he knows 
he is doing his duty. 

The rewards that come to skill are in a 
great measure identical with those that wait 
on energy. Both are recognized, appreciated 
and paid for. There may be times when the 
workman will think that he is being over- 
looked without cause, and possibly he may be 
right. He should not let this interfere with 
his method of living. If he will but continue 
the good work he can rest assured that the 



172 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

plums will finally come to his hand. Almost 
invariably the employer and the foreman are 
men of judgment, with keen eyes for good 
work, hard work and ambition, so that the 
subordinate can keep in mind that, in due 
time, he will be noticed and promoted. 

The man who is in business for himself 
steers his own course and, whatever befalls 
him, rests on his own judgment and clear 
sightedness. When employed for others or 
under others there are frequently reasons why 
the boss or foreman may overlook a man's 
ability for a little while. But on the other 
hand, there are often cases in which people 
overestimate their value, and when working 
for others, it is not justifiable to put a value 
on ourselves. This requires to be taken into 
consideration also. He is a very poor man 
who is not after the best. Why should a 
man who is hiring labor not prefer the su- 
perior? It is possible that skill may supersede 
the necessity for it. It is then the duty of 
the workman to seek out a more important 



Reward For Skill and Energy 173 

place where his expertness will be required. 
This is simply doing himself justice. Such 
a thing frequently occurs in factories, as well 
as in the professions. 

A country doctor subject to calls at all 
times of the day and night, trotting about the 
country side, handling all sorts of cases, and 
perhaps not always collecting his fees, would 
be very foolish when he discovered that he was 
an exceptional surgeon, if he did not move to 
some great city and push himself forward. 
The school teacher in the little old red school 
house, who found that he had the capacity for 
handling big concerns, would be false to him- 
self if he did not aim to become a college pres- 
ident. It is on this basis that a man should 
look out for himself if he has the capacity. 

Take two men with the same education, 
of the same age and the same general intelli- 
gence, and put them at the same trade earning 
the same wage. Separate them for a period 
of fifteen years. The chances are that one will 
be found to have moved along the same groove 



174 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

in which they both started, earning about the 
same amount of pay all through the fifteen 
years. The other will have worked his way 
up and perhaps doubled or trebled his wages. 
In such a case it will be certain that he who 
has advanced himself will, at the end of the 
period, be by far the more intelligent of the 
two, because he has not only advanced his 
income, which has enabled him to live better, 
to have better associates, but he has educated 
himself, developed his mental faculties, and 
broadened in every way. He is the better citi- 
zen of the two. 

Services are always paid for according to 
their grade, and if the man can "produce the 
goods" he will command the reward. Besides, 
there is a satisfaction to himself in the skill 
he can develop. It is far better and more 
pleasant to have fellow-workmen and asso- 
ciates come to you for advice, than for you to 
go to them. It gives you standing. 



Chapter 
XVIII. 



"The Summing Up 



^ 



The Summing Up 177 



CHAPTER XVIIL 



THE SUMMING UP. 



N summing up the many reasons why a 
young man should learn a trade one need 
only refer to the statement by Secretary of War 
Taft in the address he made at St. Louis. He 
told how, in the work done by the Panama 
Canal Commission, it was the easiest thing to 
secure unskilled labor. To get mechanics, 
however, was an entirely different proposition. 
The natives of those islands scattered about 
the Caribbean Sea could be utilized as laborers, 
and the suggestion was even made that a 
horde of Asiatics be brought into the canal 
zone. In the matter of skilled labor, the com- 
mission found that it had a conundrum before 
all the expert work could be accomplished. 
Let the young man remember that the 



178 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

person skilled with his fingers and nimble of 
mind can always secure employment where 
mere brawn and muscle will achieve nothing. 
The Panama Canal has been taken as an illus- 
tration because it is probably the most mam- 
moth undertaking of these years. Even while 
this book may run through several editions 
there will be mechanics required for work in 
the Canal Zone. When a man has a trade at 
his finger tips he need not adhere strictly to 
one particular line of business. For instance, 
the blacksmith can work at wagon making; 
he may be in a machine shop, engaged in horse- 
shoeing, be a tool dresser, or have employ- 
ment in a car or locomotive shop. The ma- 
chinist of to-day has the largest field of any 
mechanic when looking for employment. 

His trade has so many tentacles that al- 
most every branch of manufacturing will, in 
some way, require him. This does not neces- 
sarily mean that he has to work on making 
machinery. There are so many factories of so 
many dift'erent kinds, from the heavy rolling 



The Summing Up 179 

mills to the delicate spinners and each is equip- 
ped with machine shops, so that the able me- 
chanic can almost invariably find employ- 
ment. Between these two extremes there are 
those establishments which build engines, 
pumps, electrical machinery and all kinds of 
tools for iron and woodwork, locomotives, rail- 
road cars, etc. 

There is a splendid field for mechanics in 
the manufacture of steel that is coming into 
prominence lately. Hundreds of articles are 
being manufactured from structural steel, 
sheet steel and pressed steel. These materials 
are taking the place of steel castings, malleable 
castings and gray iron castings, lumber and 
stone. 

Steel has made it possible for us to erect 
exceptionally high buildings, what are called 
"sky-scrapers," used for ofiice buildings, ware- 
houses, etc. Steel is also prominent in the 
buildings used for manufacturing, and in 
bridge construction, steel is the principal 
material used. The same applies to ship build- 



180 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

ing and car building, steel being used quite 
extensively. 

Steel is also being universally used in the 
building of all kinds of machinery, agricultural 
implements, and is also being used in the man- 
ufacture of automobiles. It is now opening a 
new field in the shape of steel furniture. It 
is also coming into prominence in the manu- 
facture of a variety of small articles, especially 
where weight is objectionable and strength is 
important, pressed steel being superior to any 
other material. 

A young man entering that field is not 
making a mistake on account of the extensive 
use and the possible great development in 
that field in the near future. 

One of the very latest developments of the 
iron trade is that of the pressed steel equip- 
ment. Of course, the best known product in 
this direction is the freight car — the open gon- 
dola. Now this material is being used for box 
cars and for river barges. 

One of the anomalies in this country to- 



The Summing Up 181 

day is that so many foreign workmen, who 
come over as emigrants, secure work over 
the heads of native born Americans. This, 
I think, is one of the most important reasons 
why every American boy, who has not finan- 
cial advantages, should learn a trade. Dis- 
cussing this question, it is often discovered 
there is a general belief that the man who 
earns his livelihood by a trade must do hard 
work. As a matter of fact, machinery has 
been so perfected within the last decade, that 
the man who controls the great engines of 
commerce scarcely has to sweat. He no longer 
uses the hammer, the axe and the saw in the 
manner of our forefathers. The rude tools of 
our ancestors he does not have to handle. In 
hewing out great logs or hammering iron into 
size and shape, he must put on his thinking 
cap and do mental work where his forefather 
had to utilize his brawn. 

Working in this fashion, the modern me- 
chanic does not have to "labor." Of course, 
it is hard work, but he does more thinking than 



182 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

working, using the term "working" in the 
sense of the laborer. This makes it much 
more pleasant to be a mechanic. While he 
has done away with the physical strain the 
mental has increased, and this requires a keener 
edge to his education. It is a matter of nimble- 
ness in the finger tips and power in the brain 
matter. 

Creative work is supposed to be the high- 
est in the world. The genius is always said to 
be the man who creates a book, a picture or 
some other form of art. The mechanic is in 
his own way a genius. He can be given 
a pattern which he is supposed to follow, but 
if he can improve on that he is doing the same 
creative work that the novelist, the artist and 
the playwright has achieved. There is a cer- 
tain pleasure in accomplishing such a feat. It 
may be only in the building of a stairway, in 
the piecing together of a machine, or the coil- 
ing of an electric wire, but when the labor is 
finished, no matter to which branch it is allied, 
he can look back at the product and be cer- 



The Summing Up 183 

tain that the work of his hand has been good. 
This helps to make labor easy. It gives 
energy, because the workman who is engaged 
on something in which he takes pleasure is 
certain to be in love with his task. The sweat 
of his brow is then no longer the penalty which 
it was once supposed to be. 

The fact that a young man has spent sev- 
eral years of his life learning a trade does not 
mean that he has to stick to it. The mental 
discipline which his apprenticeship will de- 
velop is as good as a college course. In fact, 
that is what most of the colleges advertise as 
their real asset. In England, to be an Oxford 
or Cambridge man, means that the individual 
has the tone which can only be acquired at 
these seats of learning. To be from Oxford 
or Cambridge does not necessarily mean that 
a man is educated in a technical sense beyond 
his fellows. The real distinction is the men- 
tal discipline, and this can be acquired just as 
easily in the factory as in the college. The 
space between is very slight indeed. 



184 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

No country in the world affords greater 
opportunity to the young man than this. The 
fact that he has learned a trade need not debar 
him from aspiring to the very highest position 
socially, financially or politically. It is rather 
an advantage, in fact, for a citizen of the United 
States to be known as a tradesman. This is 
a country where people work not only with 
their minds, but their hands, and the word 
"craftsman" means that the person designated 
can use his fingers. The man who can handle 
his tools can help himself in many instances 
where another man without that ability is 
handicapped. 

The apprentice not only learns the value 
of the various tools he is called upon to use, 
but he gets an insight into the study of ma- 
terial. If he has the mental ability or is will- 
ing to cultivate this, the study of material 
may result in his reaching any position for 
which he has ambition. It would be a great 
advantage for the average commercial man to 



The Summing Up 185 

have an idea as to the relative value of an 
article on account of the material used in its 
makeup. If he could tell at a glance the time 
required and the ability expended in the work- 
ing of this material he would be of still greater 
use. The American salesman is supposed to 
be unique because of his glibness of tongue 
and his push. If back of these two qualities 
he also has the training of a mechanic there 
would be no proposition that could overwhelm 
him. 

The young man who learns a trade will 
find in later years, when he has risen to a more 
dignified position, that this will stand him in 
good stead. He will understand what work 
means. If he has employees they will not be 
able to waste his time because he can tell 
whether or not he is being tricked. 

With a career behind me which, starting 
as apprentice, has carried me to a responsible 
position, I would impress on the American boy 
the value of mathematics. To any one who 



186 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

has this ambition to learn a trade the science 
of figures is invaluable. Next in importance 
I consider draughtsmanship. For the good 
of himself, of his friends and of this country- 
some reasons have been outlined "Why a Boy- 
Should Learn a Trade," and in closing the 
summing up I would suggest that whatever 
business you start to learn, be sure to learn 
it right; especially if it is your intention to 
follow it for a livelihood. Do not learn it by 
halves. Be a master by all means. 

Nothing succeeds in this world like suc- 
cess ; and to be successful we must have abil- 
ity. To get ability it is important to have the 
right man in the right place. We are no more 
and no less than what we make ourselves. It 
is up to us to choose and to succeed. We can 
become important if we try. We can be the 
ship of state or we can remain drift wood. 
Which shall it be? 

Get busy. Get experience. Get ability. Get 
earning capacity. The sooner the better. Do 
not waste your young days with too much 



The Summing Up 187 

play and loafing; and when you take a job, 
do not look for the easy one that requires 
neither energy, practice or study. A job that 
anyone can do will not pay well. Learn to be 
able to fill important places. Learn to be 
worthy of important places. Some men never 
hold important places because they are not 
worthy. Others because they do not have the 
ability. Try to get both. 

Do not hesitate to wear overalls; they are 
no disgrace. You have as much right to be 
proud of your overalls as of your ingenuity. 
Do not be afraid to soil your hands. The man 
with the cleanest hands does not always have 
the cleanest conscience. Cleanliness is very 
essential and soap is cheap. It pays to be neat 
and tidy. A $15.00 suit of clothes, kept cleaned 
and ironed, looks better than a fifty dollar suit 
neglected. The man dressed up to kill may 
not be any more contented than you are, and 
you do not need to be a millionaire to be happy. 
You cannot always gauge a man's character 
by the size of his bank account. Enough 



188 Why a Boy Should Learn a Trade 

means can be had by everyone who has abiHty 
and energy to be comfortable and contented. 
Remember that the first dollar you save will 
bring you the most interest. Remember, too, 
that money spent in saloons brings no interest. 

Do not let reverses check your career. Do 
not get discouraged if you do not succeed the 
first time, but try again. And be sure you 
never make the same mistake twice. Financial 
reverses should never stop a man's progress. 
He should profit by the experience. It is the 
man who can overcome reverses, who can face 
difiiculties, who is sure to win. I am frank to 
say that all successful men have met with 
reverses, more or less, and were it not for 
their determination and persistency they would 
never have succeeded. Reverses do not make 
you less able ; but ability backed by courage, 
energy and honesty is sure to win. 

And if you are the "boy who has learned 
a trade," depend upon it you will win. 

THE END 



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